Symphony of the Brightest Star
by Frozen In Flight
Summary: When Yuri wandered off after spotting a Red Eyes, he didn't expect to be saved by a complete stranger as well as Flynn. What's with the man who uses a red and a blue sword?
1. Rain

know, I know. I've got enough stories in the middle, or that i need to work on, but you know what?

In the words of LittleKuriboh's Seto Kaiba, but altered to my own means.. screw the rules, i have plot bunnies.

not that there are any rules.

I am going through this story and slowly re-reading and slightly shinying it up again. Just so I can get it running again!

in anycase. this is Capua Nor. You know, wandering in the first time... and Yuri helps someone by tripping them, then wanders off to kill people. YAY. thats where this starts, right before Flynn shows up for those of you who remember that bit. Yes yes.

well, things are gunna be fun.

For the sake of me making sense of things, because i have yet to beat the game, and am currently waiting for a new power cord to hopefully fix the General Hardware Failure Red-Ring, cause the light on teh cord is orange, orange, orange...

my brain just died. In anycase. there are spoilers. because i have read them, despite only entering Myorzo or whatever it is before getting Red Ring...

And! Some things that I've decided.

Great War ended 10 years ago, roughly. Not on date, but yeah. it was a 10-year war.

I own nothing. Vesperia and all its characters, and Symphonia and all its characters belong to Namco-Bandai. I'm a lazy ass, so this is the only time you'll see this. I do however, ... did create the little quirks you'll be seeing, and the slight changes to plot. :D

* * *

"There are a lot of ya, aren't there?" Yuri hisses, twisting away from a Red Eye's thrust and quickly swallowing an apple gel. Sure, he'd been expecting someone to kill when he walked this way, but not the mob of assassins he found. Yuri twisted again to avoid another assassin, swinging his blade for the head of the newcomer only to find that this was not a Red Eye, nor wearing anything like one. With ease the young man – he didn't look too much older than Yuri – ducked under Yuri's blade, flashing him a wide grin, and jumped the nearest Red Eyes with a wordless yell of challenge. Yuri blinked at the stranger's style – he was wielding _two_ swords of the mismatched variety with ease and precision, rain hissing off one blade and cracking on the other. A near miss of a Red Eyes attack had him stop thinking and start attacking again.

Unfortunately, for every Red Eyes his blade found its mark on, another would drop into the melee.

"So." The stranger had a cheery voice, in spite of the current situation that pressed him back to back with Yuri. "What didja do to get these guys on your back?"

"Nothing that I'm aware of." Yuri grimaced, shifting his weight and heard the man at his back match his movement with a different position of his own.

"Might sting, still learning. _First Aid._" Yuri felt cold run through him, kicking up a few prickles and the pain from cuts and bruises faded more than he expected for a First Aid. There hadn't been a casting chant either. "Ahh... overloaded it, but not as bad. You didn't **yelp!**" as the stranger snapped the last word, his blue glowing right hand blade flicked and sliced through the neck of one of the Red Eyes. Yuri ignored the sound of cracking and popping as the blade moved back to the man's stance. It didn't sound like bones, so it wasn't worth worrying about.

"You got any more spells?" Yuri slashed at a Red Eye that moved too close, drawing blood, and swung for another, gaining sore knuckles.

"... Unless you want me to damage houses... no." the stranger says cheerfully. "My control isn't worth rotted food to a noble." Yuri grimaced at that analogy and what it would mean.

"Well, let's just see how long it takes for my friends to notice we're over here then." It actually didn't take long – although it wasn't the Rita, Karol, Repede, or Estelle Yuri would have thought to notice he was gone and suspicious noises of death were coming from the dark alley mouth, but the blond haired knight was welcome just the same.

"Ahh, good. Back up." The stranger muttered, swiping blood from a lucky cut across his cheek off with the heel of his hand while keeping the red left blade locked with a Red Eyes' punching dagger.

"Yuri, are you all right?" the blonde knight knocked two of the Red Eyes away.

"Flynn!" Yuri blinks, straightening. "What are you...? Hey! That's my line!"

"I've been looking all over for you." Flynn says.

"That one was mine, too." Yuri says dryly, _Azure Edge_'ing a new Red Eyes. The stranger watched with quiet study and entertainment as Yuri and the knight immediately moved as one, striking down the Red Eyes together. "Good, eh? Wonder if that's how me and Dad looked." he asked the Red Eyes he had pinned before killing the assassin.

"...Heh, that was about to get ugly." Yuri says, gingerly moving his right hand.

"All right.." Yuri paused in turning about as Flynn suddenly took a swipe at his head, the stranger smirking suddenly at the sight.

"Whoa, hold on!" Yuri catches the second strike on his blade. "What are you doing?!"

"Yuri, I'm happy to see you're finally seeing the world outside the barrier." Flynn says with deceptive cheerfulness as he keeps his blade down on Yuri's. Yuri shoves at the knight, then dodges and dodges again as Flynn tries taking chunks out of him.

"So, be a little more happy then." Yuri says, keeping his blade in a good guard position as Flynn's blade strikes and strikes again to clang off. "and stop pointing that thing at me."

"Well I got a little less happy when I saw this!" Flynn indicated something on the wall with his blade. Yuri reached over and plucked the paper from the wall, absently noting that the stranger was still watching, amused like while he absently cleaned his blades.

"Hey!" Yuri exclaimed cheerfully. "It's up to Ten thousand Gald. Nice."

"I didn't think when you quit the Knights that you'd take up a life of crime." Flynn sheathed the sword.

"Nice. Look, the art's just like you." The stranger looked at picture, grinning widely. Now that they were nearer the mouth of the alley, Yuri could see he had brown hair lightly highlighted with red that dropped half over his face due to the water, his eyes were bright and a terracotta sort of shade – a warm muddy red-brown mix. He wore a dark red coat to a little past his ribs, gloves of the same color, a black-stained shirt armor, if not a suit, and loose black pants tucked into dark red boots, as well as twin dark brown belts about his waist for his mismatched blades. He was also taller than him, likely by two or three inches if they were on level ground and without shoes. He frowned playfully at Yuri. "I was supposed to help you, right?"

"Who's your friend?" Flynn asks, eyeing the stranger.

"That's a good question." Yuri turns to the stranger, only to find the man absorbed in his own little world, which seemed to be fishing through his pockets to find something while holding a rent in his clothes. "... He's not paying any attention..."

"Yuri, a crime is a crime." Flynn had sheathed his blade, but he seemed intent on taking Yuri in.

"And you're as stubborn as always, I- Uh-oh." clicking noises drew Yuri's attention to the street, and Yuri finds his attention taken again, but this time by Estelle.

"Yuri, I heard something happened." He felt the cold shiver through him again, and from Flynn's hiss, the stranger had healed him too. Now he only had rain water and mud to mark something amiss. "Are you all..." Estelle caught sight of his Knightly companion.

"Perfect timing." Yuri smirks at Estelle.

"..Flynn!" Estelle darts past Yuri to hug the blond knight, completely ignoring the red clad stranger as he stitched a hole on his pants back up while standing. "Oh, Flynn. Are you all right? Have you been hurt?" While Flynn stood flustered as Estelle basically felt him down for injuries, Yuri returned to street level.

"I-I'm fine now. Um, Lady Estellise..." Flynn managed to get her to stop as Yuri paused by the stranger, watching the man balance and keep his stitch work neat and tiny.

"Oh!" Estelle jumps a little back. "I'm sorry. I was just so happy to see you, I..." Flynn looked thoughtful for a moment, glancing at Yuri's back and the stranger.

"Please, this way." He grabbed onto Estelle's hand hurried past the other two men.

"What? Ah, but..." Estelle stumbled a little, then turned so she could run normally with the knight. "Flynn, there's something I need to tell you...!"

"I better go find Karol and Rita.." Yuri reached over and snagged the sleeve of the stranger as the man shifted from the shadows behind him and made to move off in the other direction. "And you're coming too. There's no place else to stay in the city." Yuri keeps his grip on the sleeve as the man grins a bit sheepishly at him.

"I'd be fine taking the top off one of those boxes and sleeping." The stranger points out. "I don't mind a bit of rain."

"You'll drown." Yuri points out dryly. The man looks like he was going to protest again, then grimaces and shuts his mouth. "There, that wasn't too hard, was it?"

"Whatever, girly-locks." The man twists his sleeve out of Yuri's hold. "I can walk without a leash."

"If you're sure about that." Yuri smirked at him, only to get one back.

"Yes mother, you don't need to hold my hand anymore." The man imitates a child's voice, sidling up against Yuri, before breaking out in muted laughter and moving back to half a pace away – far enough that the sheath at his closest side didn't come close to whacking Yuri or the one he carried on cords. The man's mirth faded visibly as they walked the short ways back to the inn, his eyes losing their cheer as he took in the state of the citizens, and his fists clenching, more the brown fading into more red.

"There's nothing you can do right now. Even if you give them Gald, the Magistrate will take it via taxes, and they'll be back in this state." Yuri points out as if he wasn't really pointing anything out.

"Tch..." the man makes an angry noise, then mutters to himself in a foreign language. If it wasn't for the snarling, angry quality to the stranger's voice, the language would have been quite pretty. Yuri had the feeling that the man was swearing like a sailor in it. Yuri nudged the man with his sheath, and they made the left corner together.

"So you step in against the Red Eyes, but not when a Knight tries to take off my head?" Yuri asks, glancing at him.

"He wasn't really trying." The stranger shrugs. "They would have been injuring, yes, but not **fatal**. He wasn't putting his all into the first one – he wanted you to catch it. So there wasn't any reason."

"Uh-huh." The stranger stood back and to one side, watching Repede curiously while Yuri talked with Karol and Rita about Estelle and Flynn. When Yuri turned, intending to give the healer and knight some time to talk, he found the brunette man squatting next to Repede, one glove off and palm up for the blue and white dog to inspect his light tan hand.

"You're a smart guy, ain'tcha. Using our metal claws and fangs as well as your natural ones, hm?" Surprisingly, the dog allowed the man to scratch behind his ears, and just as interesting, the brunette spoke as if he completely expected the dog to reply and for him to be able to understand, not in that baby-talk nonsense some people spouted to dogs. "Not that I can blame ya, I'd do the same. Man, I wish Noishe'd fight when we traveled. Dad told me he helped out, but no, by the time I was interested in fighting, he'd gone coward." Repede watched the man as he talked more or less to himself. "Not that I can really blame him." The man shrugged. Yuri wandered off to go talk to townsfolk.

"So, who're you?" Karol asks, keeping under the awning and watching the brunette man ignore the rain.

"No one, really. Just met your friend just now, and he told me I don't get to sleep in a box 'cause I'd drown." The man continues scratching Repede, ignoring the wet-dog-smell.

"You met Yuri in an alley." Rita figured out where. "Do you know how shady that is?"

"No, I'm remarkably not shady. See? Red. Not grey, or dark blue, like those guys who were attacking him." The man flashed her a grin.

"What guys?" Karol asks, startled.

"Some guys in dark blue coats with these lenses over their eyes so they glowed red." Karol and Rita looked at each other, but the stranger continued. "Mind you, the effect isn't quite as good as naturally having red eyes. The lenses make them look a bit bulbous."

"Red Eyes? Yuri was being chased by Red Eyes?" Karol muses. "What did he do this time?"

"The same thing that raised his bounty?" the man asked, then sighed. "I wished they'd have put a bounty on **me**. That would have been so cool. But nooo.. I was only Wanted Criminal #0074... Then again, they weren't even a government group, more like terrorists..." he didn't seem aware that the others were there, or Yuri was returning. "... Does that mean they'd only had 74 wanted criminals in the entire time they'd been around?" his head tilted slightly as Yuri stopped on the doorstep, watching him. His eyes darted over to the right as if watching someone from the corner of his eye. "Yes, I'm aware that insanity must run in the family." Yuri coughs. "Hullo." The stranger grins.

"Should we go inside?" Karol asks, looking a little warily at the man.

"Sure." Yuri shrugs, opening the door. "You too, babbles."

"Whatever, Girly-locks." The man retorts, standing. Karol mouthed what the man had said, before following Yuri in. Rita eyed the man again, but followed after Repede, and the stranger shut the door after them. He pulled out a slightly stained, but clean, towel from his pack and dried his hair on the spot, before shedding his coat and the dark stained shirt of armor. He was wearing a full length black shirt under the armor. After they'd gone in, Yuri reserved beds for the three of them, Estelle and the stranger, before heading to the other room with his friends in tow.

"All finished?" Yuri asks, walking into the room, watching the knight and healer. Flynn glanced back as Estelle tilted her head. "And are we done whispering secrets?" Yuri continues a bit sarcastically.

"I've heard your story up until this point, Yuri." Flynn says, still sitting with his back to the nearly black haired swordsman. "And also the reason for the bounty on your head." Flynn stands, facing Yuri, Rita and Karol, the stranger having already moved past Yuri to lean on the wall. "First off, I owe you my thanks for protecting her." The knight inclined his head.

"Oh, I've been meaning to express my gratitude as well, Yuri." The pinkette healer stood quickly, and bowed slightly.

"It's nothing." Yuri denies the need for thanks, watching as Flynn strode past the stranger toward the bed in that corner. "I was already out searching for that Blastia thief."

"And that's where we have a problem." Flynn faced Yuri again, his eyes catching on the stranger for a second, then returning to the target of his conversation.

"Hmm?" Yuri tilts his head.

"Regardless of the circumstances, the imperial law cannot allow the obstruction of officers, jail breaking, and trespassing." Flynn says firmly. The stranger's eyebrows went up in his hair as he grinned again, running ungloved hands through his hair in an effort to get the last of the water out. It was now sticking up messily.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I told him everything." Estelle says, clasping her hands before her as Yuri glances her way.

"Don't be sorry." Yuri shrugs. "I mean, I did all that stuff." He seemed to pay no further mind to it.

"Then I assume you are prepared to receive the punishment your actions deserve." Flynn didn't really ask it.

"Flynn?!" Estelle moved forward, but paused as Yuri cut in.

"Do whatever you like, but just listen a minute, will you?" Flynn cuts him off.

"So you can tell me how it was all done in order to get back the lower quarter's Blastia core?" Flynn asks. "That's what you wanted to say, right?" before Yuri can respond to that, the door opens again, and an orange haired female knight and a small green haired boy walk in.

"Sir Flynn, I have news..." the smallest of the lot in the room blinked and double took at the mage he'd just passed. "Wh-what is Rita doing here?!" he turns and points at the taller mage. "I heard you refused an imperial request for assistance. Do you think it's all right for a mage employed by the empire to simply abandon her obligations?" Yuri watched the small green haired male, then glanced at Rita.

"Who's that?"

"Got me." Rita says, bringing a hand up to her face to think.

"... Humph, whatever." The green haired one turned around. "It's not like I care a whit about you either." He shifted light blue frames.

"I'll make the introductions." Flynn says. "This is my second-in-command, Sodia." The orange haired woman with a single right braid and violet eyes nodded to them. "This is Witcher, a mage who offered his assistance to us in the laboratory in Aspio." The mage shifted his glasses again. "This is my..."

"You...!" Sodia abruptly recognized the man she was standing across from. "Sir, it's the criminal from the wanted poster!"

"Hey, good for you, Yuri! She says you're good looking!" For some unknown reason, this seems to crack the stranger up, and he holds his sides as he proceeds to slide down the wall laughing.

"Wh-what? I did no such thing-!" Sodia draws her blade, pointing it at Yuri, who just looks down the edge as if wondering what it's doing there.

"At ease, Sodia...!" Flynn throws a hand out, despite that he was nowhere near enough to touch the blade. "He is a friend of mine."

"What?!" Sodia looks startled, but her blade doesn't waver. "But Sir, he's a wanted man!" she glares the stranger at the base of the wall, who looked like he might burst into laughing again.

"I've just heard his story." Flynn indicates Yuri. "While he is guilty of minor crimes, the warrant for his arrest contains false accusations. Later, I will return him to the capital and explain the situation." Yuri looks at Flynn as the knight drops his hand. "And he will receive his due punishment." Sodia stares at Yuri, then at the laughing brunette man, and puts her blade away.

"My...my mistake, Sir." She glances over to the mage. "Witcher, let's have your report."

"So, we're done here, right?" Rita asks as the small mage walks over to Flynn, the brunette stranger sitting up again.

"I believe the ongoing rain and wind are being caused by a Blastia. The weather in this season is unpredictable, but it does not explain why it worsens whenever boats leave port." The stranger abruptly grew serious, his red tinted brown eyes intent on Witcher as he gave his report.

"We also have testimony that something like a Blastia was carried into Magistrate Ragou's residence." Sodia adds.

"I've never heard anything about a Blastia that controlled the weather." Rita says, thinking aloud. The stranger's eyes flick over to her as he stays perfectly still. "Nothing like that has ever been excavated... Wait, the aque Blastia, the ruins... it couldn't be..."

"So his lordship, the magistrate, is using a Blastia to control the weather." Yuri puts it together and voices it.

"... It appears that way, though we can't yet say for certain." Sodia says, although she looks like she'd rather not be agreeing with Yuri. "The harbor has been closed due to weather. Any ship that leaves is fired on for disobeying the ordinance." The brunette man's expression twisted in anger, and he made fists in the fabric of his pants.

"So much for crossing over to Torim..." Yuri says.

"Those aren't the only rumors surrounding the magistrate." Flynn's voice was soft. "He's released a monster known as Rhybgaro into the wild and amuses himself by forcing those who can't pay their taxes to hunt it. He claims he'll pardon their taxes if they can manage to capture the beast." Yuri could have sworn that every hair on the back of his neck jumped straight up as some instinct told him to run from a predator as the stranger makes a choked, angry noise from the floor next to him, but after he did so, it vanished. Repede whipped his tail once or twice, before sitting back down, and Flynn also looked uneasy as Karol peeks about from behind Rita.

"How cruel..." Estelle murmurs.

"Cruel doesn't begin to cover it." The stranger's voice was small, but because it was crushed so that it held no emotion.

"That injured couple we met near the entrance must be two of his victims." Rita says.

"And their child..." Karol says.

"What?" Flynn blinked at Karol as the stranger began muttering sourly to himself in that pretty language. "What happened to their child?"

"Forget about it." Yuri stepped into Flynn's line of sight. "Well, it's been a hell of a day for us, and we're tired." He grabs onto the stranger's arm. "Let's just stay at this inn for the night." Yuri pulls the man out after him, Karol, Rita and Repede on his heels. Estelle overheard the start of a conversation about a missing person before she shut the door on the knights. She found Yuri staring down the slightly taller brunette man.

"Let me go." All amusement was gone from the brunette man's face. "I need to do something, anything."

"Flynn will get you arrested if you attack anyone." Yuri points out.

"I don't give half a ratwiggle's ass." The stranger snaps. "I can't just sit around while there's someone... doing shit like that to the people he's supposed to be caring for!" his hand flicks to indicate the town, the less-than-well kept state of the room they stood in at an Inn that should have been well kept. "Protecting!"

"Sleep." Yuri insists, but his grey eyes say the same sort of thing that the stranger's red-brown do. "You used some magic, right? You need sleep first."

"..." the man turned, pulling his sleeve from Yuri's grip. "You're right. I might do something I might regret later right now. Might accidently set fire to something other than that bastard." He dropped himself on the bed closest to the door, kicking off his boots and then ignored the lot of them as he started mending again.

"So, how'd you meet Mr. Anger Issues?" Rita asks, taking up a bed as well.

"Red eyes." Yuri shrugged. "He jumped in, Flynn jumped in, they won't get up again."


	2. Plan

Once again, disclaimer on chapter one

* * *

"So, what's the plan?" Karol looks up at the party as they regroup outside of the Inn. The brunette man still hadn't introduced himself, but he was visibly calmer, but not cheery again as he calmly munched through an apple.

"I'm going to go see Magistrate Ragou." Estelle says.

"What? We'll get turned away at the gate if we try to go there." Karol blinks at her. "Even a noblewoman like you would have no chance of getting in."

"Yeah, but with the harbor barricaded, we can't cross over to Torim Harbor." Yuri points out. "And that thief Dedecchi, along with that one-eyed giant, are both on the other side of the water." The brunette tilted his head.

"Do you think they'd fire on you if you tried to swim across?" he asked, looking at them about his nearly gone apple.

"One, the water's cold. You'd die." Rita ticks off. "Two, it's too far. You'd die. Three, they might still fire on you."

"And you'll die, I get it." The stranger was still grinning, disposing of his apple core by means of someone's over watered hedge.

"Let's stop babbling about it and just go, okay?" Rita says, frowning at the man.

"If he won't listen to what we have to say, we can think of another plan." Yuri picks up the strings to his sheath, smirking. The brunette man grins.

"All right, let's head to Ragou's palace, then!" Estelle smiles. They nodded and crested the hill for the magistrate's palace.

"... You go talk. I want a peek." The brunette man was watching the walls, which were easily twice his height, with a grin.

"They'll notice you." Yuri points out.

"If you're talking to them, they'll notice **you**." The man eyes the wall, then darts at it. Estelle covered her gasp as it looked like the man would charge straight into the wall in the corner, but their eyes went wide as instead he ran **up** it. Two long steps later and he griped the edge and crouched on top. "Hurry up, then. They'll think we're accomplices if they notice me then you talk to them. I'm not gunna go in or anything."

"Right." Yuri deadpans, turning and walking down as the stranger inched a little more to his right, carefully watching the guards. Fortunately, the pair of hired swords didn't notice the stranger as they told the noble and her friends to scram, despite Yuri's needling. They turn and leave.

"Welcome back." The man dropped off the wall neatly, straightening and stretching. "Since you're still out here, they didn't let you in."

"Yeah." Yuri says. "What did you see?"

"Gardens. Mostly floral arrangements, but not very good ones." He ignored the looks his rather un-contextual comment got. "Nothing overly suspicious, like cages of monsters or kidnapped children." He was watching Yuri as he said this.

"... We'd best leave the frontal assault on the palace to the Imperial Knights." Yuri says, ignoring the accurate guess of what had happened to that couple.

"But isn't the fact that that's going so badly precisely what's got Flynn in such a bad mood?" Rita asks.

"Hmph." Yuri catches onto another idea. "Maybe he'd see us if we came bearing gifts, so to speak?" the stranger grins slowly.

"A gift? What do you mean?" Rita asks, frowning.

"The Rhybgaro." Yuri smirks. "It's worth a fair amount of money, right?"

"Come to mention it, that official mentioned the Rhybgaro." Estelle nods slowly. "He said that someone with its horn would never have to worry about taxes again."

"If we brought him something that valuable, the magistrate would at least grant us an audience." Yuri nods.

"You propose to catch the Rhybgaro?" Rita asks.

"This is our chance!" Karol grins. "It's raining, after all!"

"What does rain have to do with it?" Estelle asks.

"The Rhybgaro comes out of hiding when it's raining." Karol explains. "Out of all the monsters I know, it's the only one that goes out in the rain."

"Capital observation, Captain Karol." Yuri doesn't quite grin, but it's a smile rather than a sarcastic smirk. "What else?"

"...What do you mean, 'what else?' That's all there is to it!" Karol says.

"So where's the Rhybgaro now?" Yuri asks. Karol had no answer, which Rita expected.

"Monsters aren't exactly going to stay in one spot for you. That'd make it way to easy. If the magistrate's tormenting his people with this creature, it's likely nearby, but not close enough that it's easy to catch... Because there are more monsters out there than just it, and the further away it is, the more weary the people would be when, if, they could reach it." The stranger shrugs as they turn to him. "I don't think he actually wants anyone to catch it. So he'd make it as hard as possible, while still making it somewhat possible, if the people actually stood a chance against monsters. It's near the city, but not nearby. Why else would he keep it raining?"

"... And what are you going to do?" Rita asks him.

"Kill monsters nearby. I'll meet you when you come back." The man shrugs. "I'm not in the mood for a scavenger hunt, just a bit of easy hunting."

"Right..." Karol wondered what sort of guy he was, but they talked to townsfolk and headed out of town in time to catch Flynn re-entering.

"You never could sit still, could you?" Flynn asks of Yuri.

"Stop treating me like a little kid!" Yuri complains, walking past his old friend.

"Yuri, don't do anything reckless." Flynn says.

"I haven't done anything reckless sine the day I was born!" Yuri retorts. "I'm just chasing after a Blastia thief!"

"Yuri..."

"You're the one who should ease up on trying to do the impossible, Flynn." Yuri walks past him, Repede following, and Karol, Rita and the stranger a moment later.

"Witcher, go see if we can get the right to search Blastia laboratories." Flynn orders his mage, who nods and runs off. Flynn sighs, looking after Yuri. "I thought leaving the capital would have changed him a little... but it seems like he's even more reckless than before."

"Flynn?" Estelle tilts her head.

"Yuri's so single-minded when it comes to protecting others. He's willing to sacrifice himself to do it." Flynn says. "I envy him for that, but I also worry that he'll take it too far." Karol darts back.

"Come on Estelle. Let's go." He calls. "Yuri's gonna leave us behind."

"Oh, that's right, we should be going now." Estelle bowed her head, and moved past Flynn.

"Oh, by the way, Lady Estellise." Flynn's words stopped her for a second.

"Yes?"

"...How... How is it, walking around the outside, free?" Flynn asks quietly. Estelle turns back to him.

"I can't say everything's been perfect, but... I realized there are things I must do. And that makes me happy." She smiles. "It's been wonderful." She hurried to catch up with the others. Like he said he'd planned to, the stranger waved and darted off with his mismatched blades drawn the moment he spotted a group of monsters.

"Hullo." The stranger stepped out and into step with them. He looked much happier, grinning at them. "Good hunt?" Before they could reply, a woman shouted.

"Wait! You can't go out again after that girl went through the trouble of healing your wounds!" It was the couple who had lost their child. The man was still wearing bandages, although it looked like it was more to not waist the bandages they'd already put on than because he needed them. He held a long sword in one hand, and was heading their way with his head down. Yuri looked at him, then stepped forward.

"Where are you off to with that dangerous weapon?" Yuri asks, stopping in front of the man.

"That's no business of yours." The man says, looking down. "I can't have you sticking your nose into my affairs just because you're curious!" Yuri reached into his pack, and pulled out something long and golden, throwing it like it was a scrap at the man's feet. "Th-this is...?!" evidently, the man recognized it. He and his wife fall to their knees as Yuri turns away.

"Sorry for stealing your thunder back at the inn. Maybe this'll make it up to you." He turns and walks off as the couple thank him. The rest follow Yuri, the stranger smiling.

"H-Hold on! You're just giving it to them?" Karol protests.

"It's a small price to pay if it saves their child's life." Yuri doesn't turn around as he says this.

"You were planning on doing this from the beginning, weren't you?" Estelle says slowly.

"Nope. It just came to me." Yuri says, shrugging.

"You do realize that you just gave away our gift for the magistrate, right?" Rita points out. "Now what'll we do?"

"No worries, we'll just find some other way to get into the magistrate's place." Yuri turns around and faces them.

"If we get some good wood, I can make something like that horn. I'm good at things like that." The stranger offers. "Or I might have another idea. But we can always talk to the knights. They might have gotten something."

"Yes, maybe Flynn's even gotten into Ragou's palace already and set things straight!" Karol hopes.

"Yeah, that'd sure be nice..." Yuri mutters, but they all turn and head into the inn to get out of the rain as much as visit Flynn. They headed back to the room where they'd meet the Knights before, and sure enough, the three were there. "You're looking chipper as always, Flynn." Yuri points out, walking to stand between the two beds.

"I've got a lot on my mind, Yuri." Flynn says. "Not that you'd know what that's like."

"Hmph..." Yuri snorts.

"Manage to go out and get your bounty raised even higher?" Flynn snipes.

"I thought you went to the magistrate's place." Yuri ignores the jibe.

"I went. Along with a search warrant from the Blastia research lab." Flynn says.

"Ah, so you were able to go inside and look around."

"Nope... The magistrate refused us entry."

"Why?!" Karol asks. The stranger crossed his arms with a heavy exhale, standing ready, and his expression was angry again.

"He even tried to provoke us. 'If you really think I have Blastia, try to bust your way in,' he said." Witcher points out.

"He knows we don't have the jurisdiction to do that—he's just making a mockery of us!" Sodia mutters.

"Well, isn't he right?" Yuri asks.

"What did you say?!" Sodia and Witcher head over to stand between Yuri and Flynn angrily.

"Yuri, whose side are you on?" Karol asks.

"It's not a matter of whose side I'm on." Yuri says, glancing at Karol then watching Flynn. "If you think you're right, you should force your way inside."

"No, it's a trap." Flynn says, causing Sodia to turn and look at him. "Ragou wants the Imperial Guard to make a mistake so he can use it as an excuse to increase the authority of the Council. If we go in now, he'll hide the evidence and feign innocence."

"Is Magistrate Ragou on the Council as well?" Estelle asks.

"Yes." Flynn faces her. "The Imperial Knights and the Council are both essential organizations that support the empire. But Ragou seems to have forgotten this fact."

"So in short, we're not dealing with your everyday magistrate here." Yuri shrugs. "Well, have you got a plan for what you're doing next?" When Flynn remains silent, Yuri smirks. "What, you're out of ideas?"

"... If there were some sort of disturbance inside the palace, the Imperial Knights would be able to move in under the pretense of emergency prerogative." Witcher says slowly.

"Ah yes..." Estelle closes her eyes. "'The Imperial Knights may employ emergency prerogative to intervene in emergency situations, regardless of jurisdiction'." She quotes.

"Of course!" Yuri's grinning. "So if a thief snuck in and caused a ruckus that'd be enough?"

"Yuri, I know you want to help, but..." Flynn is cut off by Yuri.

"But I shouldn't do anything reckless, right?" Yuri shrugs.

"Sounds like this is when I can help out." The stranger stretches, drawing attention to himself again.

"And just who are you?" Rita snaps. "You've been following us for the past two days, but you haven't introduced yourself!"

"And who are you to ask for my name?" the man retorts, smirking a bit as he crosses his arms. "I thought it was common courtesy to introduce yourself when asking for a name. Or don't they teach kids that anymore?" Yuri noticed Estelle glancing from the red clad man to Karol and back speculatively. Rita fumed, grabbing for her scroll.

"Haha, he got you there Rita!" Karol laughed, then immediately cringed as Rita's fist came in contact with his head.

"It would be nice to know the name of the man who aided my friend." Flynn says, watching the red clad man. His bright eyes flicked over them all, before mischief entered them as he straightened.

"I am Kratos." He says, dropping his left hand to his left hilt. "A mercenary." It looked like he was trying not to laugh again.

"You're from a Guild?" Karol asks, startled, but not as much as the man as he blinked down at him.

"Nope. Just me on my lonesome." Kratos crossed his arms behind his head.

"Don't you get lonely like that?" Estelle asks.

"Hmmm. Sometimes." He tilted his head, glancing to the right before grinning again. "But then I just talk to inanimate objects."

"..Right." Flynn coughs slightly. "No matter how thankful I am for you aiding Yuri, if you do something reckless, I'll have to bring you in."

"You'd have to catch me and have proof, wouldn'tcha?" Kratos had a slightly feral look to his grin.

Flynn sighs. "I'm going to go patrol town. I just received a tip that a fugitive with a warrant out for his arrest is trying to get into the magistrate's palace." Yuri leads the way out of the inn, his friends and Kratos following behind.

"I've got a bit of a plan. If it doesn't work, we can try another way in." Kratos says, still smirking as he put his hands in his pockets, the rain flattening his hair into his face again. "It's not a very big plan, so I'll explain it when we get up to the magistrate's place." So they headed up the hill in silence, before ducking into a small corner before the walk to the two guards and the front door.

"This place seems to get bigger every time I look at it." Karol says, peeking about Yuri. "Are members of the Council really that important?"

"'The Council is a body of nobles which aids in the political administration of the empire'." Estelle recites.

"Which means they basically represent the empire's interests." Rita translates.

"Huh, you don't say." Karol says.

"So what about getting inside?" Rita asks, glancing at Kratos.

"Simple, I think." He crosses his arms behind his head. "I ask to get hired. If they let me in, then they come with, as guards yeah? If they don't, I imply that I must not be good enough, and challenge the both of them to a fight to see if I 'meet their standards'. If they refuse, I insult them, and they get mad and accept, and I kick their asses into dreamland. If they don't refuse, I kick their asses into dreamland. Either way, we go on through." Kratos grins at them.

"Tough luck." Everyone but Yuri and Kratos jumped at the new voice. "They're a guild on a job. They ain't gunna let some unaffiliated man join with them. And ya can't get ta the back entrance unless ya can clear the wall that surrounds the place." Everyone turned, or glanced in Kratos's case, and there was a man with graying brown hair in an open purple coat. Before Estelle could yelp, he'd leaned forward with a finger between them in the 'shh' guesture. She gasped instead. "Ya won't last long if ya go screamin' in a spot like this, yer ladyship."

"I can clear the wall." Kratos crosses his arms and watching this newcomer like he was confused. "But I'd have to take trips to get us all up an over... and that increases risk of detection..." Kratos mutters it, like he's thinking of possibilities.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Estelle asks.

"Whaddya mean?" the man circled them, stopping near Kratos but facing Yuri. "Me and the kid there are old friends, right pal?" Everyone turns their attention to Yuri, except for Kratos who was still staring at this stranger.

"What are you looking at?" Yuri waves a hand. "I barely know this guy."

"Now now, don't be like that. What about the fun times we had in jail," here the man's apple-green eyes sparked a little as he grinned. "Mr. Yuri Lowell."

"Huh?" Yuri blinked and looked at the man. "I don't remember telling you my name." the man waved a crudely drawn image on some rain sodden paper.

"See? You're a celebrity, Yuri." Karol recognized the wanted poster. "So, what's your name, mister?"

"Huh?" the man blinked down at Karol. "Ah, right... I suppose Raven will do for now."

"For now, huh...?" Rita frowned at him. "who the hell does this guy think he is?"

"Rav...en..." Kratos says slowly, as if he was thinking. Raven glanced at him, then blinked.

"That's my name, don'tcha wear it out." Raven smirks at him.

"Well Raven, it's been lovely seeing you again. Now buzz off." Yuri's attention went back to the pair of guards at the palace entrance.

"Aw, come on. Yer tryin' ta get into the palace, right?" Raven smirks. "You just leave it up ta old Raven." And with that, he darted out of their little cubby hole and straight up to the palace.

"Shouldn't we stop him?" Rita asks. Kratos was watching Raven with a tilted head, his eyes flicking to the right every once in a while.

"Actually, he pulled a trick like this that helped me get out of the castle." Yuri says.

"Really?" Estelle tilts her head. "Well, then maybe we can trust him."

"... He talked to the guards and sent them your way?" Kratos says, eyebrows in his rain plastered hair.

".. Kratos's right, they're coming over here..." Karol says. As they look about the corner, Raven flips on the spot, gives them a thumbs-up, and runs off to the left.

"B-but why?" Estelle is confused, as Yuri sighs, and Rita explodes with rage.

"Wait'll I get my hands on him!" Rita shouts, Karol recoiling and Kratos grinning widely. "No one uses me as a diversion!"

"Well then, here we go!" he was grinning as he followed Rita out, dashing along the edge while she cast a fire spell. He didn't get to do anything, but there was a bright light to his eyes as he grabbed the down men's weapons and chucked them over the walls.

"There she goes again with the magic..." Karol groans. "Now what?"

"Head on in!" Kratos was nearly bouncing on his heels.

"What else? We did just get rid of the guards." Yuri points out. Rita and Karol take a moment to glance at Yuri, before Kratos darts forward, and they all follow. Rita almost went up the steps, ignoring the fact that Kratos had already turned for the left. "Whoa. Not the front door. Let's see if we can get in from the side." They follow the red clad man around the neatly cared for, soggy yard, and find that Raven had waited for them. Raven spots them as they round the bend.

"Hey hey, so we meet again." He smirks at them, and heads into the elevator furthest from them. "Glad to see you're okay. Catch ya later!" as he calls the last, the lift he was on went up.

"Wait!" Rita shouts. Kratos makes a quick turn, grabbing onto the white marble to sling himself onto the lift. Once everyone else was on, it rumbled, and went down.

"Ack!" Karol's exclamation covered a more colorful one of Kratos's. "It's going down?"


	3. Hop

Once again, disclaimer on chapter one. Hints in here for how old Sir Kratos is~

* * *

"Argh, I don't believe this!" Rita stayed by the elevator while the others stepped out into the sandy bottomed basement room. "You can't control it from down here!" Kratos was coughing, covering his nose.

"Ugh..." Estelle caught onto it right after, and Repede was already panting to avoid breathing through his nose.

"Something smells rank..." Karol mutters.

"This isn't **rank**..." Kratos mumbles.

"...Blood." Yuri identifies. "Along with something else? It smells rotten." He decides it might be a good idea to change the way he's breathing too.

"That would be because something is rotting.." Kratos's light tan has gone a bit ashen. Repede growls, his tail straightening as black monsters move from the shadows of the room.

"I wonder if he's into raising monsters, too." Yuri muses.

"Could be. He had Rhybgaro, after all." Rita says, watching the monsters move.

"And feeding them, like as not that's what we're smelling." Kratos drew both of his blades, the glows of fire from his left and pale blue-white from his right illuminating his face and casting strange shadows.

"Pa..pa, ma..." a child's wail reached them. "Help me...!"

"Agh, what was that?" Karol jumps. "What is this place?!"

"That damn bastard!" Kratos growls, lunging to rip into the monsters on a direct path toward the door where the wail came from.

"There's someone there, we have to help them!" Estelle says.

"Follow Kratos, he's carving a nice path through." Indeed, the red clad man was, slaying monsters with swift, brutal strokes of his mismatched blades, not using any Strike Artes. As Kratos was only paying attention to monsters in front of him, they did still have to fight – slaying monsters that tried to sneak around the twin-blade. They headed into another sandy floored room, except that this one was decorated with the bones of monsters... and ones that looked rather humanoid. Kratos was looking about, eyeing the monsters in the shadows. The crying of a child distracted him.

"Papa... Mama..." Kratos immediately flicked his blades, sending frozen monster blood flying and sheathed them, turning and darting toward the voice. Estelle followed on his heels, kneeling in front of the boy as Kratos looked him over for hurts.

"Everything's going to be okay." Estelle says, watching as the boy cowered and covered his head yet. Kratos bent and picked the child up. "Can you tell me what happened?" Estelle followed the boy as Kratos gently soothed him.

"A scary old man brought me here... He said it was 'cuz Papa and Mama couldn't pay their taxes." The boy says, his voice still trembling. Rita was scowling at Kratos, while Karol turned to Yuri.

"Do you think that this is the kid from before...?" Karol asks Yuri.

"...How horrible." Estelle says.

"Are we sure that it would be a bad idea to give that old a... coot," Kratos realized he was holding the boy and shouldn't swear. "a new mouth?" when only Yuri got what he was implying, he elaborated. "Right across his neck?"

"No, we can't do that!" Estelle vehemently disagrees with killing Ragou. "If you just kill him, it will look like a murder. But if we expose what he did, then we can strip him of power, and it will be lawful!"

"Fine, fine." Kratos waves a hand. "No killing... I promise."

"All of these bones... Could the monsters have done this?" Karol asks.

"Papa... Mama... I wanna go home.." the boy wails a little, clinging to Kratos's coat.

"It's okay." Kratos pats the kid on the head. "Everything's okay now. Nothin's gunna happen to you."

"What's your name?" Estelle asks.

"Pauly..." the boy's calming a bit more.

"Come on Pauly, be a big boy. No more crying." Yuri approaches, smiling rather than smirking. "You'll see your mom and dad soon."

"Okay..." Pauly rubs at his eyes.

"So, how about a ride on my shoulders?" Kratos offers, grinning widely, even though they could tell his eyes weren't quite into the cheeriness his expression gave. Pauly nodded, and Kratos helped him up there, holding onto one knee.

"Can you fight like that?" Rita asks, frowning.

"Yep. I can cast a handful of spells too, but they tend to be a bit... big." Kratos grins wolfishly. "Great on fields, horrible in rooms. I'll just leave point to Yuri and Karol." It wasn't that hard, even with Kratos keeping back and only killing what got close to him, nor did they have to go searching for a key because Kratos was even more adept at picking locks that Karol. They reached a room where their half had bones and sand, and the other half had stairs up, and an old man with dark robes. Kratos let Pauly down.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" the old man asks. "More delicious snacks for my pet, it seems."

"So you're Ragou?" Yuri guesses. "You've got some pretty disgusting hobbies."

"Hobbies? Oh, you must mean my basement." Ragou stroked his gray beard. "Only someone with my refined sensibilities could understand the pleasure I derive from such things. You're just like those senile old fools on the council. They bored me to death and never let me enjoy myself. Its' the privilege of my exalted station to dispel such boredom with the... help of the common people."

"I knew a guy like you." Kratos says slowly, tapping his chin like he was thinking as eyes turned to him. "He was in charge of a bunch of people. He liked torture... blood... all sorts of disturbing things... What happened to him? Oh yeah." He snapped his fingers. "He died." Here he grinned at the old man, and it wasn't a happy expression. "In pieces. He tortured and killed the wrong woman, and he died the most brutal death I've ever witnessed." His grin widened as he leaned into the bars. "How long until you make the same mistake, Ragou?" Ragou recoiled, but seemed secure in the fact that there were bars between the angry twin-blade and him.

"You can't mean that's your only reason to do those ... things." Estelle says, frowning slightly.

"Well, I suppose I should go and fetch Rhybgaro." Ragou ignored Estelle's comment. "So many new toys... He ought to put on quite a show. Though you may not live long enough to see it..."

"That last bit's supposed to be my line..." Kratos hisses, his reddening eyes on Ragou.

"There's no point in searching for Rhybgaro." Yuri says. "We've already taken care of him."

"...What did you say?" Ragou shifted his glasses.

"Are you deaf?" Yuri asks coldly. "I said we've already taken care of him."

"You..." Ragou trembles. "What have you done to my pet?"

"If you'd put a bell on it or something, maybe you wouldn't have lost track of it." Yuri points out.

"Ah well, with a bit more money, I'll soon be able to replace him." Ragou muses. Yuri steps aside as Estelle moves to the bars.

"Ragou! How can you say such things and still call yourself a servant of the empire?!" Estelle demands. Ragou jumps, startled, then shocked.

"What? ... You... But that's impossible!" he stammers. Yuri grips the hilt of his sword, and swiftly thrusts the blade backward, sending the sheath flying before he tosses the blade so that he's holding it correctly. Both he and Kratos swing a blade – one blue bolt runs across the sandy ground from the flame like blade in Kratos's hand, and one in the air from Yuri. The gates don't stand a chance and Ragou is knocked down in a shower of broken metal. Yuri rests his blade on his shoulder. "S-stay back! W-what do you intend to do?!" Kratos walks slowly forward, tilting his head as he draws his blue blade. "Someone! Arrest these intruders!" Ragou scrambled backwards.

"You actions have undermined faith in the empire, driving citizens from their homes and a good many to their deaths..." Kratos hisses, his blades pointed near the ground. "That would make you a murderer, wouldn't it..." Ragou gets to his feet, stumbling backwards. "You're even on the council. I bet you know exactly what the punishment for murder is, don't you." Ragou turned tail and fled surprisingly fast for an old man in a dress... **robe **as Kratos pointed his red blade at him.

"Kratos, stop it!" Estelle shouts. The man twitches, but grins at her.

"Hey, I said I wouldn't, right? I just wanted to see if he'd piss himself." Kratos shrugs, sheathing his blades.

"We'll have enemies all over the place if we don't hurry up and finish what we came to do!" Yuri says, wrapping the strings of his sheath about his hand again. When Rita started casting, Yuri stopped her. "Hold it."

"... What? Don't we need to create an emergency for the Knights to respond to?" Rita asks, still glowing red.

"It's still too soon." Yuri says. "First we need to find some evidence." Rita sighs, but dispels her magic.

"We've got to find the Blastia that controls the weather." Estelle nods, still keeping an eye on Kratos.

"Let's get going then." Kratos jerked his head to the stairs, and they headed up. Fortunately, they didn't have to go far. There was a large, conspicuous machine in the room at the top of the stairs. It went to the ceiling of the two story room, with a second story platform of its own and a large glowing blue part at their level, and a smaller up on the second.

"Is this the Blastia we're looking for?" Karol asks. Rita takes two steps forward, then darts over to the stairs reaching to the second level on the large machine. She goes up to the smaller glowing point, and creates a seal in the air in which she begins... typing.

"Strihm, laitos, rockra, fleck..." she mutters. "They just patch together Blastia with different formulas... This formula could manipulate the weather, but how can they use them like this?!" Rita's voice rises in anger as she types. "It's just like at Ehmead Hill. They don't have the slightest respect for what they're working with!"

"This is just what we need for evidence." Estelle says."Rita, shouldn't you finish that later...?"

"Just a bit more..." Rita was still typing furiously. "I just need to check a few more things..."

"You can have Flynn give you a look at it after we're done. Let's get busy with our 'emergency'." Yuri says, walking over.

"Let's just break something that won't be missed..." Estelle looks about. Karol decides that this must be one of the pillars of the Blastia machine, and starts wailing on it with his axe. Rita's furious, her magic glow's back.

"Ahhh!" three fireballs form. "Damn it!" She spins and casts on the walls.

"What got into you all the sudden?!" Karol demands, avoiding getting singed by a stray fireball.

"We've gotta give those knights a good reason to show up, don't we?" Rita shouts, casting again.

"Now we're talking!" Kratos laughs, his own glow of brilliant crimson forming. "Hey, Rita!" the enraged mage looked at him. "Mind telling me what I'm doing wrong?!" Rita's eyes widen as he formed the seal and his own fireballs formed.

"You put too much into that, you idiot!" Rita yells, dashing down the stairs as a bright fireball flies past her.

"Yes, but I don't know if we should..." Estelle trails off as Rita motions for her and Pauly to get behind Kratos.

"Huh? They don't look that different..." Karol blinks as Yuri does the same, grabbing him to move behind Kratos as the slightly redder fireballs crash into the walls... and explode with far more fire than they should. "Ahhh!"

"That'll draw their attention." Yuri says dryly as Kratos avoided Rita's book while laughing.

"Really, what a way to behave in someone else's home." Ragou shouts.

"Want some more?!" Kratos shouts, his hands flaring with pale blue lights this time as he shifted his stance. "_Freeze Lancer_!" he casts, a large seal forming in the air above his head. Ordinarily, shards of ice not much larger than a short sword would fly from the points on the seal where they protruded, but Kratos's spell gave off veritable spears that crashed about the room.

"You're going to overload a spell at this rate!" Rita snaps. "You're using too much Aer!"

"The time has come for you to earn your keep. I want all of them captured." Ragou shouts, moving away from a spear of ice that crashed into the wall above his doorway. "Whatever happens though, take care not to kill the young lady!" Ragou shouts as Yuri darts in, Kratos on his heels and Karol right behind him.

"No way! Are these guys from the Blood Alliance?" Karol seems to recognize their outfits.

"The who?" Kratos asks, drawing his twin blades as Repede growls. Yuri joins them in taking on these guildsmen, while Rita continues casting.

"And here's another one for you!" After quickly dropping the guards, Yuri darts back.

"That's enough, we're getting out of here!" He shouts, spinning Rita while she was casting so she faced the stairs up and out.

"What are you talking about?" Rita shouts back. "I'm not finished yet!"

"If we don't leave now, we'll run into Flynn, and I'd rather not deal with that." Yuri says.

"You don't seriously think he'll come that quickly..." Rita casts a fire ball, when out of the door comes the blond knight and his two helpers.

"Magistrate, I don't know what's happened here, but allow us to offer our assistance." Flynn calls to the old man.

"Flynn?!" Estelle gasps.

"There, see?" Yuri says, annoyed.

"Humph. He's certainly enthusiastic..." Ragou mutters. Of course, before anyone could move more, a glass window shattered and a blue and white scaled beast flew in with a white armored figure on its back.

"Whoa...!" Everyone watched the beast go, Kratos narrowing his reddish eyes at it as it flew. "Is th-that the dragon rider?!" Karol stammers. Flynn nods at his companions, and he and Sophia dash to get to the other end of the room and Blastia. Witcher casts fireball at the dragon, who dodges it easily, flying out of reach of Flynn and Sodia on its way to the Blastia. The rider slashes the core with a lance before flying on, which causes a massive amount of sparking.

"You!" Rita screams. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! How dare you destroy those Blastia!"

"There really is a person riding a monster..." Estelle whispers.

"It's not that hard." Kratos mutters.

"Wait!" Rita shrieks, casting Fireball rapidly. Several of the spells orbs went close to Flynn and the others as they chased the Dragon Rider.

"It's getting a bit cold, isn't it." Kratos comments, his hands before him. Yuri stares at him because as he says this, the dragon breathed fire on the level above and Rita casted more Fireballs, making the room anything but cold. "_Frigid Barrier!_" with a sweep of his hand, the wall was split in two with a gleaming blue-white wall of ice, trapping the knights and Ragou on one side, and the dragon rider and them on the other. "Shall we get going?" he asks, smiling at them. Rita looks around quickly, but the dragon rider was already out the window.

"Damn, he'll get away!" Flynn shouts, covering his face from the flames then testing the wall of ice with his boot. It held with a sharp clang.

"Prepare my ship!" Ragou's voice was a bit shriller, but it was he who shouted. Yuri turned.

"Where do you think you're going?!" he turned and ran up the stairs, Rita on his heels.

"Ahhh... exercise." Kratos sighs, grabbing Pauly about the waist and holding him as he darted with the rest. They made it outside to find that it was only soggy below now, instead of above as well.

"Argh, what the hell!" Rita shouts while Kratos put Pauly down. "Who rides a monster like that!"

"That was the Dragon Rider." Karol says, looking up as the beast flew off.

"Dragon rider? More like dragon freak!" Rita snaps. "Hurting my Blastia like that!"

"'Dragon freak'..." Karol sighs. "You know, Rita, that Blastia wasn't even yours..." Kratos was visibly restraining laughter at their antics, but was smiling all the same.

"Anyway, who do you think someone would go around destroying Blastia?" Estelle tilts her head.

"That's a good question. I'd like to sit down and pick that dragon rider's brain sometime." Yuri says.

"As if you could have a normal conversation with someone like that!" Rita snaps.

"... It might be interesting." Kratos says, rocking on his heels a bit. "I mean, the dragon rider isn't destroying every Blastia she comes across, is she?" Everyone turned to stare at him. "what...?"

"How do you know the dragon rider's a she?" Rita demands.

"I can tell." Kratos blinks at them. "She wasn't human, and she was a she." He says it like he didn't know they couldn't and now wished he had kept his mouth shut.

"How?!" Rita grabs onto his coat.

"Her... aura, wasn't that like everyone else's here." Kratos says, grabbing Rita's wrist and twisting her hand free, then releasing. "You're all human, not counting Repede, hers wasn't like yours, therefore she isn't. As for knowing she's a she... the shape of her armor. It wasn't the normal shape for a man. That and..." here he looked away a bit, scratching his nose. "there wasn't a groin protector. Male suits of armor have one... and the rider's didn't, so in combination with the shape..."

"You had time to notice that?!" Rita shouts.

"I have to!" Kratos snaps back. "Every time I meet someone, I don't know if they're going to attack me or not! In the first glance, I have mark out as many weak points and flaws in someone's stance, their armor, their abilities as I can by sight!" He continues, armed with his first two fingers together as he moved and poked points on Rita rapidly. "Your armor is weak here, here, here, here! You have no significant muscle mass, even compared to Pauly, thus you are not suited nor have studied or trained for physical combat. Marks you as a healer or mage. You have a scent of books about you, even after weeks on the road, books and dust, you study for hours and don't smell of medicines and bandages and blood, you are a mage, not a healer, your hands have calluses from holding books, you study and read and research. You have goggles already upon your head, you may have sight problems or just wish to be prepared for a sudden gust or wind spell, your stance does not suggest you know how to do much more than dodge, and even then at only short distances." Kratos's voice was rising and growing faster at the same time, Rita shrinking back as he continued to point these things out, Karol and Estelle staring in shock. "You are not suited to be a front line fighter, but that book of yours is heavy, its purpose is attacking when your combat-oriented comrades let one slip, close enough to strike you. You likely only have a few strike Artes, your power lies in spells, your clothes are light so that you can move faster, because you're a mage, you are one of two first targeted, the healer and the spell caster, the two more dangerous units and the ones first-"

"-Kratos, that's enough!" Yuri barks it, and Kratos freezes, and then begins to gasp for air that he hadn't been getting while he was speaking, holding his head as he stares at the ground. Rita blinks rapidly, Pauly hiding behind Estelle, Karol staring in shock. "I can't say she didn't mean it like that, but you need to breathe. Calm down." Kratos covered his face with one of his hands, staring at the ground with eyes that flicked every once in the while like he was watching things they couldn't see.

"S...sorry." he mutters. "I'm... not used to... existing yet..." Yuri watched Kratos because of the wording of that sentence, noting the slight tremor to his limbs, before pretending he hadn't noticed.

"..." Yuri gave Rita a significant look. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then looked away, opening and closing her mouth again. Kratos takes a deep breath, closing his eyes and tilting his head back.

"You don't have to apologize. I... snapped." Kratos says slowly, half opening his eyes. "I could have just said I'm paranoid. I'm... not used to being around people who don't possibly want me dead." He gives a half grin. "It's nice, but a change. I just... have to get used to it again..." he looks away once more, eyes sliding off to the right again then firmly back.

"...Sorry." Rita mutters it anyway. Yuri nods, then turns toward Pauly as Kratos stared at his slightly shaking hands, fisting and forcing them to stop.

"Do you think you can go home by yourself?" Yuri asks, squatting by the boy.

"You're going to go get that bad Ragou person, aren't you?" Pauly asks, glancing at them all.

"Yeah, we want to hurry." Yuri says.

"It's okay." Pauly grins at Yuri. "I can go home by myself."

"There's a good boy." Pauly darts back into town.

"Estelle, what's the matter?" Karol asks.

"I still can't believe the magistrate could do such terrible things..." Estelle says softly.

"Sadly, it's pretty common." Karol says.

"Haven't you seen what the empire's capable of several times on this trip already?" Yuri asks.

"While you guys are having a nice little chat, Ragou's escaping in his ship!" Karol suddenly notes.

"Right!"


	4. Soaked

"While you guys are having a nice little chat, Ragou's escaping in his ship!" Karol suddenly notes.

"Right!" they all turn and dash toward the water, going down some steps, or sliding down the rail in Kratos's case, to a dock. A large ship was pulling away from the dock as they raced along.

"What the hell am I doing here..." Rita asks while running.

"Here we go...!" Yuri shouts, running next to Karol.

"Whoa, hold it hold it hold it, I'm not ready-!" Karol yelps.

"Please don't hit me for this." Kratos says, voice low as he grabs Estelle and then Rita, jumping behind Yuri as the dark violet haired man jumps with Karol. Somehow, they make it onto the boat. Kratos drops the two girls, taking steps away to look about warily while Karol pants and Repede lands neatly.

"These are all Blastia Cores!" Rita exclaims, flipping open a box. Yuri turns and looks, Karol moving over to do the same.

"Why are there so many?" Karol asks, frowning. "And they're all just cores..." Kratos was blankly staring at the contents of the box.

"I have no idea." Rita says, frowning. "We don't even have this many at the laboratory!"

"Could this be connected to the core thief?" Estelle asks.

"Take them." Kratos pulls out a sack. "This Ragou's ship, he's obviously not up to any good, we might as well give them to people who actually need them." He hands the cloth bag to Rita, who nods and starts picking them up.

"Could be." Yuri turns, while Kratos straightens, frowning a little.

"But I thought the one behind everything was a huge guy with one eye." Karol says, looking worried. "That doesn't fit Ragou at all."

"Then the big guy might not be the only one pulling the strings." Yuri brought his gloved hand to his chin. "I wonder if the core from the lower quarter is here someplace."

"Sorry, none of these are big enough." Rita stands with the sack of Cores, then hands the bag back to Kratos, who nods and stows it, before his head whips around.

"Company." Kratos says cheerfully, just as Repede growls. Several men with short swords approach and attempt to circle them.

"I knew it." Karol says, grabbing the haft of his axe. "These guys are with the Blood Alliance. They're one of the five master guilds."

"Hmmm. You mentioned them before." Kratos tilts his head as he shifts his mismatched blades in their sheathes. "What exactly are they? They don't exactly look like much." Karol turns to give Kratos an interesting look, but the brunette man's comment had caused angry reactions in the Blood Alliance Guildsmen. Yuri quickly got rid of his sheath as Kratos drew his two blades in a smooth motion, laughing a bit. "Here we go!" It didn't take long for the men to go down with blood – Kratos seemed to excel at fighting humanoid enemies.

"Are these guys connected to the Blastia thief too?" Yuri frowns at the downed men, cleaning his blade while Estelle healed them of scratches – although Kratos waved her away, explaining he already _First Aid_ed himself.

"Just what is the magistrate up to..." Estelle sighs. The boat was still moving, and Kratos was checking the Blood Alliance men they'd fought. The ones who were dead were dumped over the side after he checked their pockets for Gald, the ones who weren't were made so and treated the same. Rita stares at him a bit, while Yuri and Karol looked at each other and headed up to the cabin, Yuri standing to one side with blade ready while Karol looked at the door.

"Move!" Kratos snaps, spinning about from the deck edge to face the cabin.

"Out of my way!" A harsher voice shouts, and the door slams open, knocking Karol back to Estelle's feet, Yuri tucking back a bit. Out came a different man, although his hair too was gray, it was more silver on the top. He was more like the description that Yuri had received – a giant of a man with one eye. He also wore red over a dark gray shirt and white pants, his left hand encased or replaced by a metal ball with spikes coming out of it that spun once or twice. "Hah." He looks down on Karol as the boy gets back on his feet. "Was that spineless work Ragou running from a bunch of kids?"

"One-eyed giant..." Yuri's blade was pointed at the man's back. "So you're the one getting people to bring you all these cores?"

"Maybe I am..." the large man's grin is feral, turning his head a bit more than he should have needed because Yuri was on his blind side. He whips out a large blade, spinning to slash at Yuri. Yuri deflects the first strike, letting the large man slice into the wood of the ship, but he continued his swing, showing that his coat had gold-like metal spikes on the back, like the large blade he held and his ball of a hand. Yuri jumps back off the raised platform of the ship as Kratos returns to the party, his blades held ready. "You're quick and you've got guts, too." The large man says, watching Yuri. "My arm's gonna feel that... Wish I had you in my guild."

"How flattering." Yuri says dryly.

"But its pushy guys like you I have to watch out for. Upsets the harmony of the guild, see? Nothing personal..." the man still had his feral grin in place.

"Barbos, what are you waiting for?" Kratos's expression lights up in a sort of dark glee as he recognizes the voice of the man he liked to bother, Ragou shrieking at the large man from about the corner. "Dispose of these brats!"

"Can I kill him now...?" Kratos does a very good child's whine as he looks at Estelle.

"No!" Estelle says firmly.

"I did all the work you paid me for." Barbos says, frowning now. "Besides, the Knights'll be here soon." Yuri's expression deadpans with annoyance. "Rather not have those guys following me around. Next time we meet, you kids won't be getting off so easy." Kratos looks like he would protest being called a kid.

"Oh, right, can't. You're ancient, so we're all kids to you despite being full grown in two cases." Kratos says, nodding like it all made sense now. Barbos glowers at him, before running past Ragou onto a life boat.

"Wait! He's still inside... Damn!" Ragou seems to give up on that. "Zagi...! We'll leave the rest to you!" Yuri's expression became clearly annoyed while Ragou clambered into the life boat, and Barbos cut the ropes. From behind the raised cabin came a man in a dark body suit, covered with dark purple armor like straps and brown belts. His hair was mostly red, but two bangs from behind his headband were blond, and half of the hair going to it was black.

"Who is it?" the man, this Zagi, asks. "Who do I get to kill this time...?" his expression contorts with sheer insanity.

"You're the one from the castle!" Estelle yelps.

"Looks like we're stuck with this guy..." Yuri says, annoyed.

"Sounds like you two go way back.." Kratos muses, drawing his twin blades. Suddenly the boat rocks, and smoke comes up the side. "... they're firing on us." Now he sounds annoyed.

"My blade, it aches to..." Zagi was bent over while keeping his balance. "kill... " his head jerks up, his expression one of startled anger. "I've got to kill something!" Like that his blade was out and he lunged for Yuri, who dodged the stroke. Zagi ended up slashing the protrusion that would have been a mast were they on a sailing ship, and more flames sprouted. Yuri spun, resting his blade next to his shoulder to face Zagi.

"Whoa... Go easy on me this time." He's smirking though, and as that was Yuri's ready stance, Kratos shifted into his. Zagi straightened, and tilted his head back to give them this utterly insane look that can't be described accurately, but was rather close to disturbing and hilarious at the same time.

"You think you can kill me?!" Zagi shouts, lunging for Yuri. "Go ahead, try it!" Kratos slams his shoulder into Zagi's side. The force of Kratos slamming into him knocked Zagi back as Kratos righted himself.

"Don't worry, I will." Yuri slashes at Zagi while the man was off balance, but met his blade.

"Yes, cry out! Writhe in pain!" Zagi gets to his feet and attacks, causing both blades men to block. "Die for me!"

"What the hell are you tryin' to do?!" Yuri demands, Destruction Field-ing Zagi.

"Please, we have to catch that boat!" Estelle says, casting First Aid's in rapid succession as Zagi unleashed some sort of whirlwind attack. The madman didn't respond, nor did he seem to care about anything more than attacking Yuri.

"Yuri! Play bait!" Kratos's grin was both like, and unlike Zagi's, due to not having the insane bloodlust, but a fierce joy at being able to use his sword skills. Yuri glances at him, blocking the madman's attack, then nods, darting away from the spell casters, Repede and Kratos following Zagi to slice at him while he continued trying to kill Yuri.

"Why me?" Yuri shouts back. "Your outfit is more suited to luring!"

"Yeah, well, he's after you." Kratos slammed into Zagi again, knocking the insane assassin off his feet. "Obviously he doesn't know a lure when he sees one!" With Kratos throwing his weight around, rather literally, Yuri distracting the insane assassin from the casters, leaving them free to cast as they saw fit, and Karol and Repede darting in to take their hits on Zagi while he was distracted, it didn't take long before the assassin was bloody, and laughing almost brokenly as he staggers back.

"Don't let me see you again!" Yuri snaps, knocking Zagi back again.

"I agree..." Estelle mutters. Of course, at that point, the ship would decide that it had had enough and start exploding on its own.

"Graah!" Zagi shouts, falling to his knees. "That hurts..." he moans it.

"You put up a good fight." Yuri mutters, ignoring the heat from the flames.

"..I-I retreated..." Zagi got back up, and staggered through the flames as Kratos pointed his blade at him, watching and waiting as the madman cackled. "You're tough! Yes, tough! You're definitely tough! I certainly won't forget that, Yuri!"

"You finally get my name right." Yuri mutters, annoyed.

"I'm going to kill you, Yuri! Gonna carve you into little pieces! Don't move a muscle...!" Zagi leers at the dark haired man before laughing again. Before any of them could move, the ship under him exploded and sent the madman overboard. Both Kratos and Yuri's faces held identical expressions of stunned disbelief, although Kratos started laughing shortly after.

"That... is rich!" Kratos laughs, sheathing his blades, but that too is short lived as the angle of the deck changed.

"What?... It's sinking!" Karol yelps.

"Everyone, into the water!" Yuri shouts. Kratos is muttering about negative effects of salt on weapons and armor sourly, before he shuts up and tilts his head toward the cabin. He moves to the door when Yuri hears a cough from inside.

"Is anyone there?"

"Move back from the door!" Kratos shouts, drawing the red-and-gold flame sword. "Yuri, get into the water!"

"Screw that!" Yuri shouts, following Kratos through the door as Kratos sliced through, adding to the fire.

"Yuri! Kratos!" Estelle shouts.

"Estellise! No!" Rita grabs her as the two bladesmen vanish into the cabin of the sinking ship.

"But... but..." Estelle protests.

"Shut up and jump!" Rita shakes her. The four jump, swimming as far away as possible as the ship continued to sink.

"Is everyone okay?" Karol used his bag as floatation device while they all tread water.

"I am..." Estelle says. "But Yuri and Kratos..."

"..." Rita looks about, silent, before she spots movement in the water. Between the four of them come two dark shapes and a light one. Yuri surfaces with a blond haired man before Kratos surfaced.

"Yuri...!" Estelle cries out. "Thank goodness!"

"Man that's salty. I must've drank a bucket full." Yuri complains, coughing.

"I told you to exhale slowly. Really, it helps." Not that Kratos was far above the water level.

"No, you mimed." Yuri points out, struggling to keep the blond above water.

"Who's that?" Rita asks, jerking her head at the man.

"Ioder...!" Estelle recognizes him.

"What, you know him?" Rita asks, asking out right rather than trying to needle for information after Kratos had blown up on her. Before Estelle could reply, Karol notices something.

"Look, a boat! We're saved!" he struggles to wave his hands while keeping above water. "Heeey! Over heeeere!" the boat drew closer.

"It looks like everyone made it through unharmed." From the boat was another blond, a familiar one in blue armor. He took in the group treading water, then double took. "... Master Ioder!" he vanished from view, but they could hear his shouts. "Wait, I'll pull you out. Sodia, give me a hand!" They were shortly pulled out of the water, handed towels and blankets and mugs of hot drink, and sailed to the other port.


	5. Light

I redid tiny bits of previous chapters, and fixed some... typo's in 4... Check them out if you like. :D

Thank you xXImperfect AngelXx for spotting Yuri having bark hair and that Barbos turned into a woman for a word.... -_-

I don't remember why i titled this chapter the way I did after I did so...

I mean, most of them have been mildly relevant so far.

At least, I thought so when i made them.

* * *

"I owe you my thanks." Ioder had woken up and was standing now as they left the ship. Kratos was grimacing as he rubbed salt off his face. "You saved my life."

"Hey, who is this guy?" Rita asks, indicating Ioder.

"Um, well, you see..." Estelle tilted her head as if trying to figure out how best to say this.

"I've made arrangements at the inn." Flynn says. "We can discuss things further there. You'll come, won't you?" His attention seemed locked on Yuri for that last statement. Yuri nodded slightly, then the two blonds headed off.

"I think I'm going to see how fast I can wash up." Kratos was feeling his clothes with a grimace. "I don't mean to be picky, but this salt is going to do horrible things to my armor if I don't get it off. Not to mention I'll smell like fish for weeks..."

"What's wrong with that?" Yuri asks, smirking.

"I don't particularly care for fish, especially when they're well past worth eating.." Kratos crosses his arms.

"Eh, I guess that makes sense." Yuri seems to be watching Kratos speculatively. "But we probably shouldn't keep the Knights waiting." When everyone glanced at him, he shrugged. "Seeing as how Flynn's the one standing between me and arrest, I figure I should humor him... for once." So they headed to the inn.

However, inside the room where the light was on, was not someone they had been expecting.

"You...!" Rita snarls, glaring at the dark robed, grey haired magistrate.

"Yes? Have we met somewhere?" Ragou asks.

"... You.... deny... everything done in Capua Nor?" Again there was a spike in this feeling that they should run as Kratos clenched his fists. Rita stepped forward, and Yuri spread his arms in front of both the mercenary and the mage. Kratos clenched his jaw, making an angry noise and glaring to the side.

"Convenient time for amnesia." Yuri says, and the feeling vanishes to Karol's vocal relief. "I know somebody who can fix that for you."

"Amnesia?" Ragou brought a hand up to his chin as he thought. "I'm terribly sorry, but this is the first time we've met."

"... Can I remind him?" Kratos asks Flynn, his voice sickly sweet. "I do like reminding people."

"Are you crazy?!" Karol demands. Flynn shook his head at Kratos before taking a step forward.

"Magistrate, your crimes are undeniable." Flynn announces. "These people have seen everything."

"As I've just been explaining, someone had assumed my identity and was trying to ruin my reputation." Ragou says. "It was most upsetting."

"By the Tree." Kratos snarls, his eyes more red than brown as he glares at Ragou. "You earnestly believe... that he'd believe that? He was there too!"

"Liar! I saw those people you fed to monsters with my own two eyes!" Rita shouts.

"An imposter, I said." Ragou says. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Do you even have the technology to perfectly masquerade as someone else?" Kratos demands, crossing his arms. "Is it even possible to get every detail, of voice, of character, of personality and opinion down at all times?"

"Are you saying you have some sort of proof?" Ragou asks, frowning at the twin-blade. The brown haired man ran a hand back through his hair, grimacing as the raw rage faded from his face.

"... If he was awake, I could show you some proof... Tch." Kratos grimaced, then shook his head. "I have the proof, but not the means to show it." He says louder.

"What do you need?" Karol asks, curious.

"Power. A certain kind of... Aer. A very specific kind, from a certain ...creature." His eyes slid off to the right again. "I know how to get it, but it needs to be awake... And I don't know how to do that."

"Well, Sir Flynn?" Ragou asks. "Who are you to believe, these young ruffians or me, a member of the Council?"

"Whether you're a council member or not, that's got nothing on your ability to be trusted!" Kratos snaps. "The son of the king can be less trustworthy than the orphan street-rat, your rank means nothing!"

"Oh, would you shut up!" Ragou demands.

"Flynn..." Yuri says, holding his arm before Kratos again. Flynn remained silent, then dropped his head a little.

"It's settled then." Ragou says. "I bid you all good day." Ragou turns to Ioder, who stands while the old man bows. On his way out, Kratos suddenly smiled, a teeth showing expression that wasn't cheery. The language he spoke in was harsh consonants and short vowels, almost like he was coughing something up as he pointed at Ragou. Ragou paled, and booked it out.

"What did you just do?" Flynn asks sharply.

"I insulted his mother, and listed some things her family must have slept with to produce something like him." Kratos shrugs, smirking now. "My uncle never taught me how to curse people when he was teaching me magic. If he thinks he's cursed, all the better." Flynn shakes his head at Kratos.

"Who does that guy think he is?" Rita demands, before spinning and pointing at Ioder. "And who the hell is he?!"

"Settle down." Yuri says.

"This is..." Flynn looks like he's debating just how much to say.

"This is His Royal Highness Ioder." Estelle walked over to the blonde knight. "Candidate for the imperial throne." Kratos blinks, glancing at Ioder again.

"Huh? Hah hah, yeah right, Estelle, good one..." Karol thinks it's a pretty good joke, until no one else laughs with him. "... what?"

"I am only one of the candidates." Ioder says, correcting Estelle.

"It's true. With the passing of the previous emperor, Master Ioder is a rightful heir to the throne." Flynn says.

"Really?!" Karol recoils a bit.

"Yes."

"An alleged imperial heir captured by a so-called magistrate." Yuri says. "That's interesting." He tilted his head a little forward as Estelle blinked once.

"...I see." She murmurs. Kratos' eyes are flicking about the three on that side of the room with a speculative look. "Then this incident means that I..." Flynn nods a little.

"A little too juicy for public consumption, huh?" Yuri guesses why they fell silent.

"I..." Estelle blinks. "I just..."

"It's got something to do with your decision to leave the castle, doesn't it?" Yuri watches her. When Estelle remains silent, Yuri turned around. "Do whatever you want. I've got no interest in an empire that just sits and does nothing while its people suffer in plain sight." Estelle blinked and looked startled at Yuri's back.

"Yuri...." Flynn frowns at him. "And what have you changed by turning your back on such an empire? We need just laws laid down by the government to ensure that people can live lives of stability and peace."

"Those same laws just let Ragou walk out the door." Yuri points out.

"Which is why you and I became knights, Yuri." Flynn reminds him. Kratos's eyes are looking a bit like ping-pong balls as he watches both men in speaking order. "To change things like that. If we couldn't make it happen by yelling about it from below..." Flynn continued despite Yuri obviously getting angrier. "Then we said we'd gain honor and trust, and fix the empire from within. Remember?"

"... So in order to get ahead in life, I'm supposed to stand by while somebody feeds little kids to monsters?" Yuri snaps, turning about. "Is that it? You want me to look the other way when our people in the lower quarter are being bled dry by taxes? It's because I can't do those things that I quit being a knight!"

"I know." Flynn says, but continues on the attack. "But has anything changed because you quit?" Yuri looks away, having no answer to this. "How is anything different than it was before you joined the Knights?" Yuri's answer to this is to turn around, and leave.

"Hmmm... I agree with you both." Kratos scratches his chin, grimacing at the salt flakes. "... did it ever occur to you that what you might need is a blank slate...?" Estelle and Rita stare at him as he crosses his arms behind his head, Flynn paling.

"That would be insane."

"Yes... but people don't like to change once they're set in their ways." Kratos shrugs. "Sometimes honor and trust just aren't enough to get people to listen. What do you do then?" He walked out after Yuri.

"W-wait, I'm coming too...." Karol looked at Flynn and Estelle, then after Kratos and Yuri, then back to the knight, and back to the former's exit.

"Damn, he knows how to get to me. I know better than anyone nothing's changed." Yuri hits the wall.

"Now, what'd that wall do to you?" Kratos grins at him. "Did it insult your mother?"

".. Do you want something? Going to add on to what Flynn's said?" Yuri asks, frowning at the taller male.

"Nope. I'm on your boat." Kratos keeps up his grin. "Saving the majority doesn't quite seem to count when you can't save the people right in front of you, does it?"

"What do you mean by that?" Yuri's not frowning quite as much anymore.

"'How can we save the world, if we can't even save the people right in front of us?'" Kratos quotes something. "Not that I'm saying you're out to save the world, but changing it can be saving it too, right?"

"Makes sense." Yuri says, looking at his bruised hand. "You feeling better?"

"More or less." Kratos shrugs.

"I'm going to look for clues about the Blastia core." Yuri says. Kratos blinks at him.

"I'm going to sit down and get the whole story sometime, but right now, I'm going to get clean. Have fun." Kratos waves at him, before returning to the inn.

* * *

"Oh! Yuri!" Karol's shout alerted the dark-violet haired swordsman and the man who called himself Raven to the approach of Yuri's friends. "Hey, over here!" Karol calls to the others. Rita spots them.

"Argh, I'll get you, old man!" Rita shrieks, then starts running. Karol and Estelle run to keep up with her, and Kratos keeps a more sedate pace behind them.

"Hmmm... Maybe I'd best be off, now." Raven says, eyeing Rita.

"Yep. The Amazoness has emerged." Yuri says, glancing at the other man. Raven raises a hand in a salute like wave, and books it.

"Wait, damn it! I'm gonna beat you senseless!" Rita stops next to Yuri and shouts after Raven, before starting to run again. Karol stops next to Yuri as well, gasping for breath.

"Why'd you let him get away?" Karol asks.

"He said he's terribly misunderstood." Yuri says innocently, turning toward Karol.

"What?" Karol asks, still catching his breath. "What does that mean...?" Rita returns at a walk.

"... He got away." She crosses her arms. "I'll catch that bugger one of these days..."

"You should leave him be." Yuri advises. "Going up against that kind of guy is just a waste of energy." Estelle makes it to them, holding her chest. "... Are you all right?"

"...Just let me..." Kratos catches up to them, looking clean, amused and completely unfazed while Estelle pants. "Take a.... little break."

"Sure, you can have a little one." Yuri says, tilting his head and smirking. "Then we gotta go."

"Go?" Karol asks. "Go where?"

"We need to follow the Blood Alliance to get back the lower quarter's Blastia." Yuri says. Kratos frowns, rubbing his head.

"You keep mentioning this 'Blood Alliance'." He says. "What's that supposed to be?"

"They're one of the Five Main Guilds! They're practically a mercenary guild!" Karol says. "Aren't you a mercenary, Kratos?"

"Nope." Kratos popped his 'p', grinning while he scratched behind an ear. "I lied. And I'm not Kratos either. I just **really** wanted to introduce myself that way."

"Why you-" Rita swing her arm and the brunette man – who was evidently not Kratos – caught the book.

"So what's your name?" Yuri asks while the brunette man tosses the book lightly to catch it by the spine and glance inside to see what it was on, ignoring Rita's wordless cries of rage.

"I'm Lloyd." The man says, grinning widely while handing the book back to Rita.

"Stupid lying swordsman!" the volatile mage snaps, putting her book back in its hanger on her back.

"I didn't lie... exactly.." Lloyd scratches his head. "The Kratos I know is a mercenary... or he was for a while."

"Won't he get mad you were using his name...?" Karol asks, likely imagining an angry Blood Alliance guildsman chasing Lloyd, and them by extension.

"Likely not. He's my dad. That's how he introduced himself once." Lloyd scratched the side of his nose, frowning suddenly.

"Something wrong?" Estelle asks, tilting her head.

"Not really. Remembering how much of an ass both of us were then..." Lloyd's expression darkened. "Everything was so simple then..." he sighs, rubbing the right sword hilt – the gold and red one.

"So, what do you do?" Rita asks. "Since you're not a mercenary."

"This and that, mostly. I can make jewelry, repair most things involving metal or wood, and kill monsters." Lloyd shrugs. "I'm just sort of... travelling about, mostly. I find someone who wants to go to another town and migrate with them." Rita eyed the brunette man suspiciously. "Anyway..."

"Did you get a lead on where to go next?" Estelle asks Yuri.

"I heard a shady group from a guild was headed to the northwest." Yuri shrugs. "It might be them."

"To the northwest of here..." Karol closes his eyes, and Lloyd grins at Repede as the dog rejoins them. "The only city I can think of in that direction would be one that was destroyed in an earthquake."

"What could they want to do in a place like that?" Estelle asks.

"Hmmm, good question." Yuri says.

"Swap ghost stories." Lloyd says, nodding sagely. When Rita gives him an annoyed look, he shrugs. "Or looting. Looting's always likely."

"You don't know... and yet you still want to go?" Rita asks.

"I'm just saying we should go and check it out." Yuri says, glancing at her. She shrugs, and Yuri turns to a more interesting topic. "Hey, Karol, what do you know about this city in the northwest?"

"Just rumors." Karol looks like he's thinking hard. "Supposedly, it was some guild's headquarters about ten years ago." Lloyd blinked at him, then looked away, thoughtful.

"Which guild was that?" Estelle asks.

"Sorry, I can't help you there." Karol shrugs.

"I've never heard of an earthquake that destroyed an entire city." Rita says.

"Well, Aspio is across the ocean..." Karol says. "Maybe the information just never made it that far?"

"Hmm, I wonder..." Rita says.

"If it was ten years ago, I doubt it was an earthquake." Lloyd mutters, crossing his arms with a bitter expression. He didn't elaborate when anyone looked at him, instead offering a different point. "We should stay at the Inn before moving out. You'll probably find seaweed in places it really shouldn't be." When Karol gave him a worried glance, Lloyd grinned. "I know I did."

* * *

Yaaaay! He finally stopped confusing me with his name!

Silly Lloyd.


	6. Hunt

This Lloyd is both not the Lloyd from any of my other fics, or a straight from canon Lloyd. He's got some little details without all the details-

* * *

"Man, this place is a total wreck." Yuri notes, shaking a little to remove some rain from his already sodden clothes and hair. Lloyd was trying to make his hair not droop into his face, and failing miserably.

"Do you seriously think anybody would come to a place like this?" Rita demands.

"I wonder if we've been fed some false information again." Yuri mutters, scowling about at the ruins.

"Again...?" Karol asks.

"Shady people do shady things in places somewhat sane people wouldn't go near." Lloyd shrugs, giving up on his drooping hair. "It might not be false." He glances off to the right, then toward the left with a small smirk.

"That's far enough!" a woman shouts. "This area is under the jurisdiction of the Hunting Blades."

"That voice...?!" Karol looks startled, glancing about, before catching where Lloyd was watching.

"These measures have been taken to prevent the injury of innocent bystanders." A red-brown haired teen, whose hair held more red than Lloyd's, stood upon a ruined building's roof. She had a giant crescent moon Chakram-like weapon strapped to her back.

"Nan!" Karol shouts, looking absolutely thrilled as he moves a bit closer. "All right! I finally found you!" Nan looked startled, but not in the pleased sense as she spotted the boy, her green eyes actually looking a bit angry. "Are the chief and Tison with you? Have you guys been getting along okay without me?" Karol asks.

"Don't take that buddy-buddy tone with me." Nan snaps.

"Aw, don't be like that." Karol says. "I only got a little lost."

"A little lost?" Nan demands. "That's a good one! You know you just ran away!"

"I didn't run away, I swear!" Karol shouts back up.

"Still making excuses, huh?" Nan scoffs.

"It's not an excuse!" Karol yells. "I beat an eggbear, just like I said I would!"

"More lies." Nan says flatly.

"I-I mean it!" Karol shouts.

"Is this how you replay being taken in by the Hunting Blades...?" Nan demands. "Remind me who it was that said, 'I swear I won't run away this time'. You always run and hide at the first sign of trouble." Nan continues mercilessly as Karol's eyes go wide in shock. "You've been kicked out of every guild in the book."

"shut up! You shut your mouth!" Karol shouts, waving his hands franticly as everyone looks at him.

"...Hah!" Nan shouts. "Even we've already fired you!" Karol looked down, then felt heavy hands on his shoulders. He glanced up, and found Lloyd had his hand there.

"Oi, oi!" Lloyd shouts. "He's only twelve; I think he's entitled to turning and running once in a while! A dozen years isn't long enough to be ready to just throw your life away for sheer thrill of it!" when Nan stared at him, Lloyd grinned at her. "Besides, I ran from plenty of stuff when I was 17!" Nan grimaced at him then indicated the lot of them again.

"You have been warned by the Hunting Blades!" She shouts. "Leave this area at once! If you fail to heed this warning, you do so at the risk of your own lives." With that, Nan turned and left.

"Nan!" Karol shouts, before looking down again. Estelle peers at Lloyd and Karol again.

"This still doesn't explain what the Hunting Blades are doing here." Yuri says, looking away while Lloyd fished out a cloth that was only slightly damp for Karol.

"Good point." Rita says, heading further in and pointedly ignoring Karol.

"You know, they could be hunting something." Lloyd points out, smirking a little. "Hunting Blades hunt, right? There could be something they want to kill here."

"Rita, wait." Estelle takes a half-step. "Are you forgetting about the warning?"

"She never said we weren't allowed to enter." Rita says.

"But what about the 'risking our lives' part?" Estelle asks.

"Are you implying that I should listen to that brat?" Rita asks, shrugging a little. "Don't make me laugh."

"At any rate, the Blood Alliance doesn't seem to be here." Yuri says, frowning at the buildings. "Let's have a look around." Estelle nods, and heads off with Rita, Yuri following after glancing at Karol and Lloyd. He pauses, turning around when he doesn't hear footsteps, and finds Lloyd ruffling Karol's hair with a grin.

"C'mon." Lloyd says, catching up to Yuri with calm strides. Karol sniffs once, then does the same.

"Um.. Lloyd?" Estelle tilts her head at the brown haired man. "How did you know Karol was twelve?"

"One of my best friends was twelve when we started traveling." Lloyd says, looking about at the ruined city. "Karol has the same sort of face shape, and voice pitch, and height as my friend did."

".. oh." Estelle didn't quite sound like she believed him, but left it at that.

Lloyd frowns, then glances at Karol. "Did I guess right?"

"H-huh?" Karol looks up suddenly. "oh, yeah, you did. I'm 12." Silence reigned as they explored the ruined city further, killing monsters that approached and sinking further into the feeling that this destruction wasn't entirely natural.

"You know.. I'm thinking Lloyd was right." Estelle muses, looking at the house they just passed. "Was this town really destroyed by an earthquake? The buildings all look sort of strange."

"Yeah." Yuri looks at the houses again. "They don't really look like they collapsed from the ground shaking... Something's weird."

"They didn't, that's why." Lloyd was crouching next to one, feeling the foundation with the end of a sheath. "Their foundations are still solid. The damage didn't come from the ground at all." He stood, wiping off his knees and the end of the sheath before attaching it to his belt again.

"So... How were they destroyed, then?" Karol asks, shivering.

"Got me." Yuri shrugs. "Maybe we can find out by asking someone who used to live in the town."

"By the way..." Lloyd looked a bit like he did in battle, his eyes not quite so warm as they were normally. "Who told you that the city was destroyed in an earthquake?"

"Huh?" Karol blinks up at him. "It's just what I've overheard from Guildsmen, why?"

"Just curious." Lloyd shrugs, glancing about at buildings, then to the right a bit. "Ten years ago was more or less the end of the war, right? Who knows if hostilities truly died down right of the bat... or if this place was the last attacked." When Rita frowned at him for his pointed take on this, he shrugged again, shoving his hands in his pockets. "The damage just looks like weapons and age to me. I could be wrong, but if it was a strike, who's to say the military didn't try to cover it up with an earthquake story?"

"That's not really why we're here though." Rita points out, shaking her head in a futile gesture to get water off. "So why should we care?" When Lloyd grinned a little, and everyone else blinked once, she smirked.

"You actually have a point there." Yuri says, heading past the strange pool. The rest followed him, easily taking care of the strange thorned-frog like monsters that attacked, before finding nothing else beyond the powered down machine that Rita wouldn't let anyone near, and a slab on the ground.

"... It looks like a dead end." Estelle says, looking about at the ruined buildings and significant lack of a way up. Lloyd frowns a bit, moving to prod about in foliage to see if he could find anything.

"Should we head back?" Yuri asks, looking about as well. "Or..." He glances at Lloyd, who was standing before a ledge that was above his arm reach.

"I could probably boost people up this... but..." Lloyd scrubbed his head. "Can't see, so things could get messy fast..." He glances to the right, his head tilting, before he rights himself with a grimace, looking annoyed. Yuri noticed Lloyd rather random action, but Karol distracted from any questions.

"I'm going to have a look around." Karol says, looking around closer to the slab, running his hands over it. "Weird, there's not a keyhole or anything..."

"Really...?" Yuri asks, walking up behind Karol and then to the other edge.

"Yuri, an amateur like you would never be able to open a door like-" Karol cut off as Yuri kicked it, and it opened up. Lloyd grinned, walking back over to them as the hatch like door fell to the ground on the other side. "What the hell...?" Karol stares.

"I wouldn't want Captain Karol to dirty his hands on such a filthy door!" Yuri claims, smirking as they looked into the now opened door. Karol blinked at him, before rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh, uh, r-right." He laughed a little nervously, crouching near the ladder.

"Wouldn't it be crazy if a monster just gobbled up your foot right now?" Yuri asks, cheerfully sarcastic. "Just a giant munch, and oops, no more foot."

"Wah!" Karol leapt backwards. "Ahhh!" he lands on his back, right up against Lloyd's boots.

"Heh, looks fine to me." Yuri says, looking into the cellar like place. "Let's go inside."

"What am I, your test dummy?!" Karol demands, getting up.

"See ya down." Lloyd steps around Karol, and ignores the use of the ladder to enter.

"Lloyd!" Rita groans, heading over. Estelle and Karol recoil as the man below yelps and a crash sounds.

"Are you okay?" Estelle asks, looking like she's debating heading down or not.

"There isn't a monster down there, is there?!" Karol asks, looking worried and shaking at the same time.

"It's really dark..." Lloyd calls up. "I think I broke something."

"That's what you get for jumping down." Yuri says, frowning.

"oh, not something of mine. Something in here." There sounded a clatter and then muffled metal noises, and Lloyd poked his head up at them. He was dusty, and due to the rain, it was sort of a dust-mud to him. "I think it was a box." He was grinning at them and their annoyed and incredulous expressions.

"... Just get out of the way." Rita snaps, getting onto the ladder quickly enough that Lloyd would have to scramble or get his head or hands stepped on. The swordsman did neither, letting go with a laugh to drop down and step away.

"You're right, it is really dark." Karol says, blinking. The gray light from outside did very little for the cellar-like room, Yuri fading into the shadows.

"That's right!" Lloyd's almost shout startled them as the man fished in his pockets. "I have something that could help... where'd it go..." Rita moved slowly, shuffling her feet before a hooded-lantern like beam of healthy golden light came from Lloyd.

"Ah!" Karol yelps, drawing back from the man as he pointed the beam of light to the ceiling. "Is that... Sunlight...?!" It brightened the room considerably, enabling them to see Lloyd's broken box, old shelving, and a machine of sorts. Strangely enough, Lloyd didn't seem to be holding anything.

"Ah... sort of." Lloyd says, scratching his head. "It's... collected sunlight." The beam seemed to be coming from his hand. Rita turned on him.

"I've never heard of a Blastia that could do that." Rita says, crossing her arms. "Let me see."

"How about after we're out of the cellar?" Lloyd makes no move to lower his raised hand.

"What's this do?" Karol asks, and Rita spins about, catching Karol about to touch the machine.

"Get your grubby mitts off it!" She snaps, making Karol recoil and back away.

"Some sort of switch?" Yuri asks, looking away from Lloyd to peer over the mage's shoulders at the machine. Rita shrugged, before inspecting it. It definitely clicked like a switch, although nothing else happened.

"... Nothing's happening." Estelle says, looking about. Lloyd kept his left hand pointed to the ceiling with the light as he moved to feel the walls curiously.

"It doesn't have enough Aer." Rita says, turning back to them.

"Not enough ... Aer..." Yuri says slowly. ".. Maybe it might work if I used that ring you gave me in the Shaikos Ruins." Lloyd blinked back at them, angling his light to illuminate them better.

"Ah, the Sorcerer's Ring." Rita says, nodding slightly, while Lloyd blinked quickly. "I'm not sure... But you might as well give it a try." Lloyd turns back around as Yuri nods and raises a hand. An orangish ball of wispy light flared from his hand and vanished into the switch. Rita moved over to examine it as Lloyd returned to curiously watch Yuri's hand. "It worked... but..."

"What's this...?" Karol asks as small lights brighten and it hums a little.

"...I should have just gone ahead and activated it before, then?" Yuri turns back to Rita.

"Yeah... What if it was a trap or something...?" Estelle mutters.

"Then the Idiot Twin-Blade here would have triggered it." Rita says, jerking her thumb at Lloyd, who made a very mature face at her that involved crossing his eyes and sticking his tongue out at her. They all paused to stare at him, which he replied to with a grin. "Ignoring him, Yuri, you should point things like that out as soon as you notice!"

"No, I only realized just now, actually." Yuri shrugs. "Lloyd might have, though." When the teenage mage turned to him, Lloyd waved his hands before him in a warding off gesture, making their light bob and shine him in the face.

"Ahhh.." Lloyd stopped after momentarily blinding himself, pointing his hand back to the ceiling. "I'm not that great with technology. You'd need my uncle or dad for that." Rita frowns at him, or more specifically the light on his hand. It flickered a little, the beam growing thinner.

"Maybe if we go outside we might figure something out?" Karol suggests, eyeing Lloyd's light. Lloyd flashed a grin his way.

"Brilliant idea." The light vanished and while Rita yelped, Lloyd splashed in the growing puddle of dust-mud and fled up the ladder. They heard him laughing while chaos ensued of them trying to get to the ladder at the same time, which caused them to stumble over things on the floor and each other's legs.

"You!" Rita shouts, emerging first to look for the twin blade to beat with her book. Lloyd laughed more as he avoided being beaten by the mage, Karol, Estelle and Yuri emerging.

"That was mean, Lloyd." Estelle says, dusting herself off but giving up because it had already turned into gray streaks of dust-mud.

"Hmmm.. I guess." Lloyd shrugs. "Although I think it would have been mean if I shut the door, not that ..." Lloyd paused, enabling himself to be whacked by Rita's book, although he barely reacted, tilting his head to the left. "..."

"Something wrong?" Yuri asks, kicking the door shut.

"... I hear a whine." Lloyd wriggles a finger in his ear, spinning about. "Does anyone else hear a whine? A kinda machine like whine?" Everyone shook their heads, but Repede barked. "Eh, you hear it?" Lloyd blinked at the dog, who barked again. "Ahhh, I was thinking I'd finally started hearing things that weren't there." His eyes slid to the right and he laughed a little bit.

"Finally?" Rita narrows her eyes at him.

"My uncle claims my dad's gone insane and back, then insane and back again." Lloyd shrugs. "He also claims that it must run in the family, and skipped him."

"... right." Yuri says, giving Lloyd an interesting look. "So where's this sound?"

"Ah... Just a sec." Lloyd spun in a circle once or twice, before moving off. "This way."

".. I think he's got a couple of screws loose." Rita says, frowning. Lloyd led them through a small knot of monsters back to the machine that had been off previously, which he now stared at.

"It sounds like one of those little bugs that you can never manage to catch..." Lloyd mutters, backing away from the machine.

"Hey, Yuri." Rita inspected the machine. "This one needs Aer too."

"right." Yuri says, Rita moving away so he has a clear shot at the core, and proceeds to power it up. A purple-blue glyph formed in the air, a sword like point up, before it faded and the machine moved. A pedestal fell down, and the arch behind them shuddered and opened slightly.

"... Huh." Rita says, looking at the machine, but Lloyd actually gets on. The arch in front of him shuddered some more, opening further so that a ring of faint white-blue light shone like his lantern straight ahead.

"... Cool." Lloyd rubs his head, trying to shove his hair out of his face and failing miserably as the rain just pushed it back into his face.

"What are you doing?" Rita demands.

"This." Lloyd poked something, and then a bubble formed about him. He looked at the bubble with a bright grin as Estelle yelps, and then he was flying up and ahead, vanishing to the city level above them. After a moment, a pop was heard, and Lloyd was visible at the edge of the cliff, waving at them. "More houses up here, some monsters, and I think I see another of those machines!" Yuri sighed.

"I guess that's the way up." He says, before indicating Karol. "Captain first."


	7. Strike

After perhaps a soggy hour of hopping over buildings with the bubble machines, jumping down cliff ledges when they realized they couldn't go further in that direction, and slaying giant turtles, umbrella like creatures, thorn-ed tadpoles and frogs, and small bird monsters, they finally found other humans. On the other side of a stream, of course, but humans none the less.

"...So it looks like the Blood Alliance..." Estelle whispers, watching the people.

"...Aren't here after all." Yuri notes that none of them looked like the Blood Alliance men they'd seen so far, and none of them were Barbos.

"Those guys are the Hunting Blades." Karol says, blinking at the group.

"Th-that man..." Estelle blinks, pointing at one with a large sword on his back. "We saw him in Deidon Hold."

"Ah, now that you mention it, we did see him." Yuri turns to glance at Karol. "so he's the leader of your guild, then." Lloyd looked like he was having trouble thinking.

"Yeah, he's Clint, the leader of the Hunting Blades." Karol says. Through the rain, they could see the large dark-red haired man taking his blade from his back and holding it before him as if he was saluting the large beast before him. Yuri recognized it as the one they had to fight with its pups on the way to Capua Nor.

"He's gonna fight that monster all by himself?" Yuri asks, remembering how much trouble they had with one of the similar type. Clint proceeded to smash the beast once, and it fell over with a cry and scream.

"Wha!" Rita yelped, while Lloyd blinked, tilting his head to the right and glancing off in that direction. "No way, man!"

"He took it out in one hit...?" Yuri mutters, looking a bit startled.

"That was a fatal strike." Karol says.

"A Fatal strike?" Yuri asks.

"It's a crazy-powerful technique that extremely skilled swordsmen can use." Karol explains.

"Hmmm... So how do you do it?" Yuri muses.

"How do you do it...?" Karol looks at Yuri like he's crazy for asking him. "H-how should I know?!"

"Fatal Strike – A strong attack which throws your opponent off balance, followed by a single, well-timed strike to finish the enemy." Estelle quotes.

"Is that something else you read in a book?" Rita asks deadpan.

"Y-yes, it is..." Estelle blinks.

"I see... It sounds like it's easier said than done." Yuri says.

"Not that hard to do, really." Lloyd says, shrugging when eyes turned to him.

"... What?" Rita frowned at the twin blade.

"I'll show you." Lloyd's grin was somewhat evil. Before anyone could do more than blink, Lloyd had slammed into Yuri, his armored shoulder slamming into the dark-violet haired man's breastbone to nearly knock him over. Estelle gasped, Karol yelping while Rita shouted as Lloyd's hands went to his blades as Yuri staggered. Two movements had one sheath on Yuri's shoulder for his neck, the other on the opposite shoulder angling in and down to cleave his torso – if the twin-blade had done more than stop his arms where they were resting and let his shoulders continue, and if those mismatched blades were unsheathed. "That's one." Lloyd lifted his head to grin at Yuri while the other swordsman regained his balance and registered he was only bruised and winded.

"You... you're insane!" Rita snaps. "You could have hurt him badly with those!"

"I know that." Lloyd shrugs, straightening and taking a step back to slip his sheaths back into their places at his side. "Whether it looked like it or not, I knew what I was doing." Yuri felt his shoulder, then looked to Lloyd again.

"So, do Strike Artes work for that too?" Yuri asks, thinking through what Lloyd had preformed on him. "I don't think I can throw my weight around like you do."

"Mmhm." Lloyd tilts his head a bit, smiling. "It makes things easier, definitely. Helps you find different ways to hit them too. Up, down, back, to either side... just depends on what you use before."

"Huh." Yuri says. Since he didn't seem particularly angry at Lloyd for his almost-attack, Rita couldn't do more than glare at Lloyd, and Estelle look worriedly between the two blades-men. "... Anyway, what do you think they're doing with such a large contingent?" Yuri indicates the large group of Hunting Blades. Estelle blinks, taking her gaze off Lloyd to the guildsmen.

"Yeah, if they wanted to take out that monster we saw, one person would've been enough." Estelle says.

"This is actually the first time I've seen this many guild members gathered in one place." Karol says slowly.

"Really?" Estelle asks, tilting her head.

"Yeah, a lot of the members are loners. They tend not to travel in groups." Karol explains. "And the chief being here is out of the ordinary, too."

"Curiouser and curiouser..." Rita mumbles.

"Want to...follow them and see what they're up to?" Karol says it with a curious note to his voice, like he either wanted to, or really didn't.

"Nah, that sounds interesting." For a second Yuri's words didn't make much sense, but he turned and faced them. "But I'm gonna keep going."

"He's looking for members of the Blood Alliance, after all." Estelle says. "Right, Yuri?"

"Yeah, I don't want to worry about two guilds." Yuri returned to watching the Hunting blades despite his words. "One is more than enough!"

"... Would anyone mind explaining this to me?" Lloyd scratches at his head, eyes flicking across the lot of them. "All I know is that something called an Aque Blastia is involved, and Yuri really wants to knife the guys responsible.."

"Oh, right." Yuri blinks at Lloyd. "I forgot we haven't explained anything while we've been dragging you along with us."

"You guys aren't dragging me along." Lloyd shrugs. "I'm following you guys 'cause it looks like things are interesting. Dragging implies that I don't want to be here."

"Are you saying you want to be here?" Rita asks dryly.

"The scenery could be better." Lloyd grins. "It probably looks much nicer when it's sunny." Rita gave Lloyd an incredulous look, while the twin-blade looked about. "Explain in here?" he jerks his thumb to the house behind them. "I think we're wet enough."

"All right." Lloyd forced the door open, and they found that the place wasn't that damp inside. Finding seats on not-so-rotten furniture, they gave a rundown of things that had lead up to them meeting in Capua Nor. Mostly Estelle and Yuri, until they met Karol, who gave his observations on the happenings, then Rita joined in with her own, mildly cynic view. They also told him about hunting Rhybgaro while Estelle made sandwiches.

"Huh." Lloyd pushed his hair out of his face, nodding his thanks to Estelle as she passed him a sandwich. "Sounds like you've been busy." He pauses before taking a bite, looking inside the sandwich. His expression turns to one almost of horror.

"Is... something wrong?" Estelle asks worriedly, checking inside her sandwich to see if there was something wrong with hers as well.

"Ahh... Yes and no?" Lloyd opens the sandwich, and gingerly picks up a red fruit ring as if it was toxic and would try to attack him if he wasn't careful. Yuri raised an eyebrow as the swordsman gingerly throws it out the door, then tediously picked the stray seeds out of his sandwich.

"You don't like tomatoes?" Yuri asks, calmly munching through his own lunch.

"They're disgusting." Lloyd mutters, whipping his hands off on his pants and inspecting his sandwich for any more seeds he might have missed. "They're related to nightshade." Satisfied that his sandwich was now tomato-free, he put it back together and took a bite. "And they make me sick." He admitted with a slight grimace.

"Ah.. Sorry." Estelle looked down at her sandwich. "I didn't realize you were allergic..."

"It's not that bad of an allergy." Lloyd says, smiling to reassure her. "I just feel really bad, get sick, and feel better."

"Say, Lloyd..." Karol studies the man as he takes another sandwich bite. It was vanishing rather fast. "Can you even use Strike Artes?"

"Hmn?" Lloyd blinked around his sandwich, swallowing and tilting his head. "Yes, why?"

"It's just that you never do." Karol points out. "I mean, you used something on that gate in Ragou's place, but you never used it since."

"Oh." Lloyd grins. "That's because it's too easy if I do." Karol blinked, and Lloyd continued. "I've already gotten really good at using Strike Artes, so I don't use them.. but I've only known I could use magic for a ... couple of years, so I'm working on that... when it's not likely that I'll blow the wrong things up."

"So, what kind of magic can you use?" Rita asks, watching him.

"Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, Light." Lloyd ticks off on his fingers. "And Healing. I'm just really bad at control. I can't quite figure out how you're supposed to tell how much to put in a spell..." Lloyd finishes his sandwich.

"They're supposed to teach you that." Rita says, frowning.

"I taught myself, so..." Lloyd shrugs.

"I'm surprised you aren't missing any limbs." Rita mutters.

"I learned to heal first." Lloyd's grin wasn't reassuring. Yuri stands, having finished his sandwich.

"I want to try to do that thing." Yuri says, swinging his sheath a little.

"What was that just now?" Estelle blinks, standing as well.

"That fatal strike thing." Yuri says, rolling his shoulders.

"Is it something that can be done so easily...?" Estelle asks, tilting her head.

"Oh, yes." Lloyd hops to his feet from his seat, grinning. "I'll walk ya through it if you want."

"Whatever." Yuri heads out, Lloyd behind him to find one of the monsters that lurked in this place. Karol wolfed down his sandwich to dart after them, and Estelle, Repede and Rita followed.

"Stagger it, then whack it good when you spot an opening." Lloyd says, smirking a little as he watched Yuri dispatch monsters down to one. Yuri slung an Azure Edge into the remaining monster, blinking once.

"See it!" He shouts, slashing through the beast. "You need a little skill.." Yuri says, straightening to look at the very dead thorned-frog. "But it's not really that hard." Yuri glances at Karol. "You think you could do that from watching me?"

"I don't think that's something anyone but you could learn from watching anyone!" Karol says, looking a bit awed.

"You can pull it off!" Lloyd says, grinning as he spots movement. "Here, test!" Lloyd darted forward, kicking into one of those umbrella-like monsters before unsheathing both his blades into its side, slaying it before tossing them back into the hands he usually wielded them in.

"It's a lot easier if you use an Arte!" Yuri comments, staggering back from having just attempted to what Lloyd had, and succeeding marginally. The monster was dead, and that was all that mattered.


	8. Aer

Another hour or three of jumping about and killing monsters, they found a spiral staircase inside one of the buildings they hadn't explored.

And to make matters even better, it was completely dry, being underground with a solid roof above the first and second floors, although not too dusty. Deciding that it was a good time for another snack, Lloyd snagged their ingredients, frowned at them, and picked through his own pocket-pack of foodstuffs.

"... How can you keep so much stuff in your pockets?" Karol asks, tilting his head. Lloyd glances at him after pulling out some fire materials, pot and pan.

"Same way you keep huge weapons in that bag of yours." Lloyd says, pulling out ingredients. "I've got a pack in each pocket, and the pockets themselves are made the way the packs, and your bag, are."

"So they're really deep." Karol blinks. ".. Do you lose things in there?"

"Used to." Lloyd paid more attention to his cooking after that, and in about a half an hour, they had steaming plates of some sort of rice dish.

"What's this?" Rita asks. "I smell cheese." Lloyd sits back, holding his own plate after passing the lot out and leaving a bowl for Repede.

"Risotto. Rice, cheese, milk, onions and mushrooms. I made some chicken broth for the flavor, so there're scraps of chicken in it."(1) Lloyd settled happily enough into eating, and seeing as this was just about what they did all the time when they found new recipes, the other four humans and the dog ate. And discovered it good. So all was good. Lloyd packed the remainder up as rice balls and stowed them in his pack, which vanished into his pocket again.

Fortunately, the stairs down had lanterns that either still worked, or had been lit recently by someone else. Once down at the bottom, there was a machine, and a sealed door.

"Wh-what's up?" Karol asks, gasping, his hands falling to his knees as Estelle clutches her chest and Rita slouches while standing. Lloyd's reaction was curious, more curious than Yuri's almost lack of one. The twinblade's eyes were wide, and he almost looked like he was surprised. "I feel kind of sick all of a sudden."

"Even someone as dense as you can feel it?" Rita's snap had half the energy to it.

"Who are you calling—" Karol cut off as anger was too hard to keep up. "Wait, does that mean you can feel it, too?"

"Who couldn't feel this..." Lloyd breathes, looking about.

"Ugh, what a feeling..." Yuri mutters, although he didn't look too bothered. Lloyd seemed to like this, unlike the rest.

"Yuri... Lloyd and Estelle too?" Karol glances at the noble and the twin-blade.

"I'm f-fine." Estelle gasps out.

"Definitely fine." Lloyd was grinning, something off with the expression.

"Don't overexert yourself." Yuri says to Estelle. "We can rest here and have a look around."

"Seriously, what's going on?" Rita mutters. "Ever since we got down here..."

"If a monster attacked us right now, I don't think I'd be up to it." Karol says weakly. Lloyd was blinking about, still with that somewhat wrong grin.

"Saying stuff like that is the best way to attract monster, you know." Yuri points out. Estelle looks like she almost says something, before her head bows forward. Yuri darts to grab her as little green motes start rising from the floor before Estelle could collapse. Lloyd changed his gaze from everything and nothing to the motes. Yuri managed to catch her before she hit the floor, but because he was effected despite his lack of reaction, he sank to a kneel with her.

"Yuri...!" Estelle's startled exclamation upon recovering from her slight black-out was still weak.

"If you're going to keel over, couldn't you do it in the middle of a crowded city street?" Yuri asks dryly. "I can't be expected to be there to catch you every time." Yuri gets up and looks back to normal. Estelle on the other hand was still bent over clutching her chest.

"Y-yes, thank you." Estelle still sounds weak. "I'm still doing okay."

"... This is Aer." Rita mutters, looking at the glowing motes.

"What? I thought Aer couldn't be seen with the naked eye." Karol almost yelps it, but again, was too tired for the effect to completely work.

"If it's dense enough, it can be." Rita says. Yuri turns back to them while Lloyd looks like he's thinking, one arm across his ribs to hold the elbow of the other that's at his chin. Not his usual thinking look.

"Estelle, weren't you saying something about that earlier?" Yuri asks, looking away from Lloyd's oddities to Estelle. "That dense Aer is bad for the body."

"Yes..." Estelle didn't close her eyes this time. "High-density Aer can occasionally have very negative effects on the human body." She quoted.

"It made you pass out in the Quoi Woods, too." Yuri remembers.

"... Really?" Rita asks. "Wow."

"Maybe we should get out of here." Yuri says, looking at the stairs.

"but we still haven't made sure if the mercenaries are here or not." Estelle protests weakly.

"I guess that's true, but..." Yuri doesn't seem to be willing to find his revenge if it might damage his friends.

"Maybe we should dispel it." Lloyd offers, looking about. "If Aer is used in magic, then all we have to do is absorb enough with magic to make it stop being so thick."

"No, that wouldn't work." Rita says, drawing attention to the fact that she had walked away from their little group. "... It looks like this Blastia is linked to the door."

"How do we open it?" Karol asks.

"It seems that we have to carefully put together the symbols to form the right phrase." Rita says.

"A password." Lloyd nods.

"Wouldn't it be faster to break it?" Yuri asks, moving over with Lloyd to look at this Blastia machine.

"That's not a good idea. What if it makes the door stop working?" Rita asks.

"... Hmm?" Lloyd was blinking rapidly, his not-quite-right grin in place.

"Something's coming out of it." Yuri points out.

"... So should we just put some letters in here?" Rita asks, looking at the keys.

"We got some paper, right?" Karol asks, tilting his head.

"Doesn't matter." Lloyd was studying the keys. "Here we go." He pressed three rapidly, and there was a click, the circle-hatch opening.

"You got it." Yuri says, looking curiously at Lloyd, then to the room. "Shall we take a look?" Somewhat breathy agreements from the former-hunting blades, noble, and mage, a bark from Repede and a grin from Lloyd. Yuri nods, and they enter the vault-like door.

The room on the other side was large, and blue lit.

"that water is... floating?" Karol gasps, the Aer as thick in here as it was in the basement room. Indeed, there seemed to be water above a large ball floating in the air.

"It looks like that Blastia is causing it." Yuri notes.

"And probably this strange feeling as well..." Estelle says softly.

"...Huh?" Rita stares at the floating Blastia. "He's similar to the ones at Ehmead Hill and Capua Nor."

"Is it broken...?" Karol asks.

"When a blastia breaks, it loses its ability to take in aer." Rita explains. "There's no way it would get like this."

"So... what's going on...?" Estelle gasps out.

"I don't know..." Rita was trying to keep more than doubled over. "What could he be trying to do?" All of the sudden, the floor and room shakes.

"w-was that a monster?" Estelle takes a few steps closer. Indeed, the edge of their floor glowed blue in a force-field look over a large beast.

"m-m-monster...!" Karol yelps.

"Take it easy." Yuri advises as Karol recoils and falls down. "You're not feeling well. And there aren't any doctors around here."

"Huh...?" Karol blinks. "But... But I..." another tremor shakes them, and Karol yelps.

"Wow. He's a big one, ain't he?" Lloyd's holding onto a pillar and looking down at the monster.

"the barrier's gonna fail...!" Yuri notes.

"Don't worry, that's a reverse barrier." Rita says, watching the beast eye the barrier and circle again.

"Hmm?" Lloyd glances at her for a better explanation, while Karol voiced his need for one.

"It's a powerful barrier for holding monsters. He won't get out of there any time soon." Rita says, before straightening a little. "But the Aer here. This isn't normal." The barrier and the room shuddered again as the beast expressed its distaste for being imprisoned.

"I've got a bad feeling about this.." Yuri says, watching the barrier. About the edges, the blue glow grew less and less.

"It's starting to disappear!" Karol yelps. Rita struggled to straighten, then run.

"Rita?!" Estelle yelps. Lloyd blinked and followed her, offering his arm as help which the mage ignored.

"...Calm down... I'll have it fixed in no time..." Rita continued running, even as the floor started shining a near-solid turquoise. Repede barks as Lloyd stumbles, his eyes wide.

"so who're the numbskulls that decided to go and ignore our friendly warning?" this wasn't a familiar male voice to anyone but Yuri, Estelle, Repede and Karol.

"Sorry." Yuri steps forward, ignoring that Karol moved behind him and that Lloyd was griping his head. "None of us here are nice enough to take your 'friendly' warning seriously."

"Humph. You don't say..." The man who had spoken before was one with a hood half over his face, not carrying any weapons. His covered eyes spotted the smallest member of their party. "Well now, if it isn't that runt Karol who got his sorry butt cut from the team. The Aer must be affecting 'em. It looks pretty thick over there."

"That's just what we want." Clint, the largest of the trio, had a voice that almost matched. "You all just sit tight and behave yourselves." The large blade was drawn, and held before him. "We're only interested in taking out this big brute."

"You sure talk big." Yuri drawls. "Taking care of a pet is a big responsibility, you know. Don't go abandoning him for someone else to take care of." Lloyd and Repede's heads jerk up, Estelle following their line of sight and yelping. From the water held above the Blastia, came the blue and white dragon with the white-armored rider upon its back. They struck the Blastia, before pulling up sharply to circle.

"Him again!" Rita's rage at the Dragon Rider burned through her exhaustion from Aer. The barrier above and below cracked, water streaming down before the two barriers shattered. The large monster below them roared, rearing back.

"Phew..." Estelle blinked, straightening. "Hey... I feel better..."

"Th-the barrier's down!" Karol yelps.

"Of course!" Rita snaps. "That dragon freak broke the Blastia!" Indeed, it was sparking something aweful. "You're dead, freak! Dead!" the rider circled their level while the behemoth shook under blows from Clint's large blade.

"Yeah, that's it. Show me some anger. Show me what a monster's like!" Clint bellows while striking the beast. "Now I'm gonna mop the floor with you!" A heavy blow was deflected by the Dragon Rider's spear, the dragon twisting in air to breathe fire before the Hunting Blades.

"... Huh?" They weren't more than heated, but the dragon rider hovered above the beast below, between the hunting blades and the behemoth.

"Looks like he wants the first piece of action, Clint." The half-hooded Hunting Blade says, taking a step closer. "Well, come and get some, then!" Nan throws her blade as they settle into some sort of formation stance, the dragon rolling to avoid the bladed disk as it ricocheted, and ricocheted, and ricocheted. "Graaaaah!" the half-hooded man yells, running up the wall to try to back-flip toward the Rider. He managed to land next to the rider, and they started fighting, albeit unfairly as the rider was seated and a spear wielder and he seemed to use small knives on his finger tips. The large beast roared again, and began stomping about.

"Whoa..!" Yuri shouts as the floor under them gives out, various yelps and screams rising from the others as the floor crumbles, although Lloyd remains silent and focuses on landing on his feet. A blow to his head from falling flooring causes him to land less gracefully than he would have liked. "Damn... If we lose our balance..." Yuri quickly gets to his feet.

"I've never seen anything like it before..." Estelle coughs from the dust as she stands as well.

"Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh..." Karol was almost hyperventilating as Lloyd groaned and sat back up.

"Damn... humans..." Lloyd's growl was lost as the beast roared again, turning to Yuri.

"I guess we gotta take care of someone else's pet." Yuri says, annoyed. Being closest, he ran up to it first, even if it was easily ...far too large for him to take on alone. He spent most of his time slashing at the first pillar like legs while avoiding getting crushed. Repede shook himself and darted in, grabbing the blade from the sheath at his side to slice at the other leg. It batted at them, and they dodged, or curled into defensive positions if there was no way they could get out of the limbs range in time.

"I'll fight, too." Estelle says, dusting herself off before drawing a blade and her shield and running closer. She quickly set to casting First Aid while Repede shook off being stunned, Yuri darting back in for its legs. It had to be related to some sort of turtle-monster, it's head snapping out to try to take chunks that would be fatal out of them.

"Disappear!" It was Lloyd's voice and not Lloyd's voice at the same time, cold in a way that was hard to imagine Lloyd's voice going. Lloyd ran up behind the beast, slamming a hand down to the ground and causing a large dome of light to rise and send the Dreaded Giant, as Estelle's Magic Lens said it was called, flying. Lloyd's narrowed eyes went down to his hand as he straightened, a sneer like grin on his face. "So, it still works." Yuri noted strangeness because he was Yuri, and he noted things all the time. Lloyd's stance wasn't right, he wasn't wielding his blades, his eyes were nearly closed and there was still a bloody mark on the side of his head from the fall. The giant roared, getting to its feet again, and Yuri decided to pay attention to the monster rather than his ally.

"_First Aid_!" Estelle cast it in rapid succession across them.

"Sorry I'm late." Rita moves behind Estelle, readying her sash for casting.

"_Ray_!" Lloyd shouts, pointing at the beast as gold-white light flickers over him to his finger, then arcing to a point above the Giant. A great ball of light formed and cast beams down upon the Giant in a cone like pattern, causing minor explosive like damage upon the ground as well. Rita double took, before Lloyd's sudden movement away reminded her that the beast was very much still alive, angry, and had a long tail it used like a whip. His hands moved swiftly in swiping motions, bars of white light, apparently some sort of minor spell that didn't need a casting chant, making the after-trails to block and deflect bits of rock from the Giant's ground-rending attacks. Yuri was frowning, but whether it was from the fact it really looked like they were barely scratching the beast or Lloyd's sudden strangeness was known to Yuri, and maybe Repede. "Damn, that didn't work well..." Lloyd growls, eyeing the beast.

"_Fire ball!_" Rita casts the flames at the beast, two of the three hitting, before she moves from its long neck and snapping jaws.

"Fine, we'll try this." Lloyd swung a hand at the Giant again. "Out of my sight!" a storm-cloud like dark happened above the Dreaded Giant, before this false darkness sent beams of light, both like and unlike that of Ray, unto the beast below. Minor explosions happened when these rays came in contact of the ground or the beast, seals splaying bright on the ground for all of a blink, seals unfamiliar to Rita or Estelle.

"It's resistant to Light!" Estelle cries out, even as the beast staggers again.

"It's not _Light_." Lloyd shouts back with a look of 'can you really be this stupid' to his narrowed eyes. "It's... Moon." There was a pause before he admitted the nature of the magic. "It's a Light Variant."

"then it's still light, and it's still strong against it!" Rita shouts, her sash moving wildly as she prepared another spell. "Use fire or wind!" she cast Fire Ball again, while Lloyd avoided the long tail and Yuri ducked under the snapping head to strike at it again.

"Oh, very well." Lloyd sighs as the beast rears back on its smaller hind legs. "_Eruption._" With another hand gesture the twin-blade casted his fire spell, Repede and Yuri darting back as the ground cracked for the volcanic fire spell, which knocked the beast onto its back. Yuri saw a great opening like this and rushed in with Destruction Field. The fire that was already lit only fueled his flame tech, which was nice and hot besides, and made the beast take longer in getting up. But get up it did. Lloyd makes an angry 'tch' noise, watching it, but it made no move to flail and pound them into jelly with its large pillar like feet. It looked at them, staring across the party, then at Estelle. It leaned forward, causing the noblewoman to recoil a little as everyone shivered from a round of Lloyd's cold _First Aid_s. The Giant didn't do more than stare at her before roaring, and stomping off.

"We made it." Estelle fell to her knees in relief as Lloyd straightened, looking about with narrowed eyes yet. Rita too was looking about.

"What about Karol?" she asks, and Yuri joined in a visual search. Lloyd smirked, something still off about it, as the destroyed Blastia fell behind them with a crash, although they were either tired enough, or not prone to jumping enough to jump at the loud noise. It began to either rain inside, or the water from the pool above was finally draining a bit better on them.

"There ain't a monster alive that wasn't born to be my punching bag." The hooded Hunting Blade shouts, his head tilted back and arms raised.

"Master!" Nan shouts. "It's too dangerous!"

"This monster's mine, even if it costs me my life!" the man shouts. He seemed to be glaring at the Dragon Rider, who was watching where the Giant had stomped off, but swiftly turned to begin flying up. Rita scowls, making mystic motions and glowing red. She stopped, however, as the hunting blade ran up the wall, and jumped on the Dragon rider.. who's dragon spun and dislodged him neatly to fall into the room.

"The ceiling..." Was rumbling, even as more water fell like rain. "It's not gonna hold!" Estelle shouts.

"Chief!" Nan was by a door, shouting at Clint. "We have to withdraw! We can't afford to stay here now that the mark has escaped!"

"Damn." Clint says, annoyed. "Hadn't seen a monster like that in a while... what a letdown. All right, pull out!" he left, Lloyd watching, then looking to the ruined part of the room that had sent them to the monster.

"We should leave too." Yuri says, already starting up.

"It's not fair." Rita snaps, but she does start for the rubble. "I wanted to beat the hell out of that freak, too!"

"Wait, where did Karol go?" Estelle moved after a bit more hesitantly.

"He's not down here." Lloyd announces, heading to the rubble.

"He probably left before us." Yuri says, glancing at Lloyd, before back to Estelle. "We'll look for him as we go." Repede past Estelle, but they all safely made it up the rubble and to the vault like door, and sealed it. There wasn't any sign of Karol the way up, but Lloyd insisted he was not behind them, still watching with narrowed eyes and a shift in his stance. They returned to the surface, and hear a familiar female voice.

"Something comes up, and it's just **poof,** you're gone!" Nan was scolding, angrily. "Always, always running away by yourself!"

"It-it's not like that!" An equally, or more so, familiar boy's voice retorts.

"Not like what?!" Nan demands.

"Like I said, back in Halure..." Karol tries to explain.

"I'm not talking about Halure!" Nan cuts him off. "If you're not ashamed of anything, then shouldn't you hurry back to your friends?"

"It's just that..." Karol sounded defeated. Yuri raised an eyebrow as Lloyd took the corner.

"Humans... are so arrogant." Lloyd mutters sourly, frowning at Nan. "Sometimes running away is the only way to save yourself. What's wrong with having a little sense of self preservation?" Karol almost jumped out of his skin at Lloyd's somewhat sudden appearance, and his stop next to him. "Is there something wrong with not wanting to die?" Nan scowls at him, before frowning at Karol again.

"I think you're supposed to explain to them, not me." Nan indicates the rest of the party who rounded the edge of the building after Lloyd. Karol blinked, turning about.

"...Guys.."

"Karol, I'm so glad you're okay." Estelle says, smiling. Lloyd blinked, once, twice, then looked about quickly, as if he was a bit confused, before shifting back to his normal stance.

"Where the hell did you go?" Rita demands. "We were really in a jam back there, even with mister heavy mage." She indicates Lloyd, who grinned a bit sheepishly.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." Karol looks at his feet.

"Hey, at least you made it out in one piece." Yuri points out, patting Karol on the head.

"I'm leaving." Nan announces, turning.

"w-wait!" The fact that Karol was crushing on this girl was embarrassingly obvious as he turned to face her, even as Yuri left his hand on his head.

"You think long and hard about what you've done." But she sounded like a scolding mother. "That's all I have to say for you." With that, Nan darted off. Yuri began rubbing Karol's head hard enough to make his chin bob up and down.

"Hey, cut it out!" Karol flailed his hands at Yuri's to make him knock it off. Yuri dropped his hand as Karol's hair now stuck up in as many directions as Lloyd's did dry. Estelle was once again staring at Karol, then Lloyd, then Karol again.

"Let's get going, Karol." Yuri smirks as Karol attempts to re-tame his hair. "We're all tired."

"Yuri..." Karol seems to be leaning hard on Yuri-Is-My-Role-Model-ness.

"Man, we were way off." Rita says, shaking her head. "The Blood Alliance was nowhere to be seen."

"No kidding." Yuri says. "We'll have to take any information that guy gives us with a grain of salt."

"Just a grain?" Lloyd asks, eyebrows in his drooping hair. "How about a spoonful? Or a bucket?"

"'Guy'...?" Rita asks, then puts it together. Who had Yuri been talking with before he gave them this information? "You don't mean...?" she started to sound angry.

"Yeah." Yuri shrugs, confirming.

"Ooh! I am gonna roast that deadbeat the moment I see him." Rita declares war on Raven.

"Let's..." Estelle can't figure out a way to say 'not injure unnecessarily' to the enraged Rita, and changed her sentence. "Let's take it easy on the way back." Repede nods in agreement with this, and they start off, Lloyd working on making his hair not fall in his face with muttered annoyance, and no success.

"It's.. not like I..." Karol stayed put, looking at the ground.

"Hey!" Yuri calls. "You're gonna get left behind!" it was a lazy sort of teasing.

"I'm coming!" Karol shouts, catching up before they started down the cliff face. Rita explained Aer sickness, and the fact that Karol would be the most screwed of the lot of them if they spent too much time in dense Aer, as he was still growing.

They almost made it out of the ruined city, but a trio in armor stood in their way. Lloyd grimaced the moment that they were spotted, and moved back a bit, looking like he'd rather be anywhere but there and was going to make himself scarce. Repede growled low.

"Ah, the common rabble." Lloyd shifted further back as the blue haired man in pastel purple armor that was designed to show a heart-shaped cut out of his chest spoke in a tone that could be called oily and full of himself. "So I've finally found you. That's far enough."

"You lackeys must have had a lot of time on your hands if you crossed the ocean just to see us." Yuri points out, annoyed.

"Humph..." the knight, and judging on how the standard armor of the two flanking him matched his custom, the leader of this group, didn't appreciate Yuri's wit. "You're in no position to talk down to the likes of me." His make-up'ed eyes slid from Yuri to the pinkette in front of him. "Now, Princess, right this way." While the blue haired man stepped forward, Estelle stepped back, and Lloyd inched behind some rubble.

"Huh? What does he mean, 'princess'?" Karol asks, turning to look at Estelle.

"The princess standing right here in front of us." Yuri glances at Estelle.

"Y-Yuri..." Estelle blinked, turning toward the dark clad ex-knight. "But how did you...?"

"What?" Karol put it together a little slowly. "...Estelle's a princess?"

"I suspected as much myself." Rita says, crossing her arms and ignoring Lloyd.

"Rita... You too?" Estelle looks startled that they'd managed to see through that.

"W-wait, you've gotta be kidding..." Yuri glanced amusedly at Karol as he floundered, before back to Estelle as she seemed to get some idea, and walk forward.

"...And what will happen to my friends?" She asks, stopping between the her friends and the disturbing knight.

"Why, they'll be drawn and quartered for abducting a member of the royal family, of course." The knight waved it off as if it truly didn't matter to him. Yuri noted Lloyd's hiss, but the brunette was out of the knight's view. "Unless your friend hiding in the back comes out with his hands up." Lloyd makes a very angry noise, but straightens from his attempt to hide and comes up to join the group, his expression very much one of anger.

"Please wait." Estelle was trying to make the knight see reason with a very calm voice. "I wasn't abduc-"

"Ah, what a mouthy young lady you are." The knight shouts. "This way, please!" The moment he said that, however, his two flanking knights moved before him, drawing their halberds. While Estelle recoiled, the blue haired knight drew his blade.

"Estelle..!" Karol yelps.

"Now die like the flies you are!" the pastel knight shouts, while Yuri sent his sheath flying.

"Arrest the culprit Yuri Lowell and his accomplices!" from behind the nasty knight came another trio of knights.

"Gah... You." The first knight held heavy distaste for the newcomers. "The Schwann Brigade...!" the short knight with a head too big for his helm, the tall, lanky knight, and the taller, more knight-like knight, moved to past the disturbing one. "Just a minute! This prize catch is mine! I won't let you take him from me that easily!"

"'Catch'?" the lead knight of the Schwann brigade asks. "Our duties are not to be carried out in the fashion of a hunt."

"I'm missing some names that you guys are... mind filling me in?" Lloyd asks Yuri, watching absently.

"Blue haired is Cumore." Yuri mutters back. "The one talking to him is Leblanc. The other two are Tweedle A and Tweedle B." Cumore straightens with a disgruntled noise.

"Did I not also hear someone mention 'dying' earlier...?" Leblanc asks.

"You did." Cumore says. "What is wrong with condemning criminals to their deaths?"

"... He was serious about that?" Lloyd asks in a stage whisper. "taking on a group of six, with three, when one's obviously a mage, and two are swordsmen?" he glances at Karol, then amends. "Adult swordsmen? ... Wow." Cumore pretended not to hear this, although by his twitch, he didn't approve of Lloyd either.

"Should not criminals be captured and judged in accordance with the laws?" Leblanc asks.

"Humph... I suppose I can let you have these little worms." Cumore drawls, before walking off. "If it isn't Schwann, it's Flynn. These upstart commoners are so full of themselves." His pair of knights turn and follow him as his voice grows further off. "Even that Commandant..." only after the unpleasant trio had left did the Schwann Brigade move their attention to the party.

"This way please, Your Highness." Leblanc says, as the small knight with his shield strapped to his back moved forward, clutching his spear. "Do watch your step..."

"Um, but I..." Estelle glanced back at her friends as the small knight stopped by her.

"That one's Tweedle B." Yuri notes to Lloyd.

"Yes, right this way!" Tweedle B says. Leblanc takes a step forward to indicate the group.

"Arrest them in the name of Captain Schwann!" He announces.

"Okay, Yuri Lowell gang, it's curtains for you, I say!" Tweedle A moved to harass them with a sword.

"What do you mean 'gang'?!" Rita demands, before Tweedle B moves and grabs onto her arm. "Hey, get your hands off me! Do you know who I am?!"

"B-but I haven't done anything!" Karol protests the use of handcuffs.

"Don't hurt them!" Estelle says, looking to Leblanc. "I beg you...!"

"Estelle, don't worry." Yuri calmly lets them cuff him.

"Yuri!" Estelle is still worrying, and she glances back. ".. Lloyd? You don't look so good..." Indeed, Lloyd's looking a little grey as he stares firmly at the ground, letting them cuff him almost absently.

"I think I'm going to be sick." The twin-blade mutters slowly, wonderingly, as if he's not sure it's going to happen yet.

"Lloyd, you should have been over Aersickness symptoms long ago." Rita points out, frowning as the two Tweedles moved them into a line. "I don't think the knights are going to let you go just because you need to lose your dinner."

"My friend would say that I'm too thick-headed to pay attention to things like that." Lloyd mutters, grinning weakly.

"Just start walking!" Tweedle A says. "Walk, I say!" He tugs on the rope to Yuri's wrists.

"Ow! Hey, watch it with the pulling...!" Yuri complains loudly, although he keeps up just fine.

"Sir Schwann, we shall take these undesirables to Heliord." Leblanc looks off and reports to seemingly nothing. On top of one of the ruined buildings was a knight in their sort of armor, the red-painted left shoulder-armor, and the red-orange scheme. He lifted a hand, while Lloyd muttered to himself, but it sounded nothing like when Lloyd started casting to Rita, so she ignored most of it, being in front of him. "All members, fall out!" Leblanc calls. Lloyd takes this as cue to fall over, breathing poorly.

"... maybe he has delayed Aer Sickness." Rita says, struggling to keep up with Lloyd's rope pulling at her.

* * *

(1) No, I don't know how to cook Risotto. I'm just guessing based on the definition of Risotto on Dictionary Dot Com and the ingredient list in Tales of Symphonia :D I do know how to make rice balls, however :D

If you know Symphonia, or have beaten it... or watched people beat it. you might get what's going on :D Yes, I know he's rather insanely over-powered. It's because he's Level-Capped, and then Level-Capped again, and hasn't had time to get rusty after that.


	9. Cleared

They were escorted to Heliord, Lloyd recovering quickly although not completely by the way he'd stumble over flat ground with this utterly confused expression as he caught himself. Once at the newly rising, somewhat gray city, their weapons were taken, and pockets searched. Yuri, Karol and Rita's pockets turned up the standard healing Gels and Life Bottles and occasional Holy Bottle, although Yuri had a pair of Dark, as well as random Monster parts, items dropped from various things they'd fought and could use for customizing. Lloyd's pockets turned up a half eaten, so-old-the-bread's crusty all the way sandwich, a wizened apple, a hastily scrawled note indicating that Lloyd would punch his father in the face upon finding him, and a hand full of Gald. Their weapons put in a corner, they were ushered to a couch, and told to sit. Leblanc started grilling Yuri on whether or not he did, and was remorseful for a long list of crimes, most of which struck Lloyd's funny bone.

"Continuing on, we will review the particulars of your 18th crime." Leblanc says. Yuri, looking rather bored, but completely at ease, glanced up.

"Please do." He managed to sound like he was the host.

"Is it true that you threw a knight sent to collect taxes into the river?" Leblanc asks. Yuri blinks, then smirks.

"Wow, I'd forgotten about that." Yuri smirks at the taller of the two knights he called Tweedle A and B. "Was that you, Tweedle A?"

"That's right!" The lanky knight said indignantly. "I was in bed with a cold for three whole days thanks to you." Yuri tilted his head, ignoring the knight, before glancing back to Leblanc.

"How many more of these are there?" Yuri asks, wiggling a finger in his ear. "This is getting pretty boring."

"I wonder what'll happen to me..." Karol almost whimpers it, but not quite.

"So, I'll write you have 'no signs of remorse' in the report then." The small knight says, writing.

"Where's that do-nothing captain of yours, anyway?" Yuri asks, ignoring the knights again. "What was his name? Schwann?"

"Playing Hooky because he's the big shot." Rita says, glancing over to Yuri.

"Ahhh.. a desk knight." Lloyd nods, leaning against the wall, as there wasn't enough room on the couch for him and Repede. "He sends you out to do everything... while staying nice and dry?"

"You dare mock our captain?" Leblanc isn't amused. "Sir Schwann is a legendary hero and a veteran of the Great War ten years ago." Lloyd's expression turns withdrawn.

"So, basically, his eminence would never stoop so low as to deal with nobodies like us." Rita leaned back on the couch.

"Quiet, I say! Quiet!" Tweedle A demands. "Getting on to your next offense..." the opening of a door distracted Leblanc, and the four people facing that direction. Lloyd grimaces, and inched so he was behind the Schwann Brigade Knight as two people entered – one with white hair, the other with long blue and streamer like tails of white hair, and pointed ears.

"Y-your Excellency Commandant Alexei!" Leblanc straightens his already rather straight posture. "To what do we owe this pleasure?!" the other two Schwann brigade knights stand and salute as well.

"Alexei..." Yuri tilts his head to see past the taller Tweedle. "What...?" Alexei walked forward, and Leblanc backed up, letting the Commandant see Lloyd, who refused to look at him.

"All your crimes are hereby pardoned by the good graces of their Highnesses Estellise and Ioder." Alexei says.

"What?!" Leblanc isn't pleased, but he keeps polite. "But these foul criminals have disturbed the peace of the empire...!"

"The Imperial Knights thank you for rescuing Prince Ioder and protecting Princess Estellise." Alexei ignores Leblanc, as Yuri gets it into his head he should be standing while the Commandant more or less addresses him. The long blue haired, long eared woman stepped forward, holding a bag of what was likely Gald by the sounds it made.

"Please take this." She offers it to them.

"We've got no need for this." Yuri doesn't give the bag a second glance. "It's not like we did those things for the sake of the Knights."

"I see." Alexei says, studying them, before the blue haired woman returned her back to wherever it came from in the first place, and they turned to leave.

"What about Estelle?" Yuri asks, seeing as they weren't going to tell them.

"She has just given her consent to be returned to the imperial capital." Alexei pauses to tell them this.

"What?" Karol stands too. "... Well, I guess she is a princess, after all.." he sounds a little disappointed.

"The Princess is waiting at the inn." Alexei tells them. "We would be pleased if you made an appearance." With that, he left. The door snicked shut behind the two, and Lloyd exhaled, standing with Rita and Repede. As they stretched lightly, Lloyd immediately went to their stash of belongings, and sorted them to find his blades, which he held for a while instead of simply putting them into their loops at his side.

"You're really attached to those, aren't you?" Karol asks as he gets his hammer from the twin-blade and watched Yuri's sword go over his head.

"Yes." Was Lloyd's soft answer as he ran his fingers over the details on the mismatched hilts. One of some golden metal that wasn't the purely decorative, soft gold itself, stained red on the hand-guard with a red stone on the pommel, the other of a metal nearly ice-blue with a bar sort of cross-guard that extended a little beyond the edge of the sheath, with a blue stone of the same size in the pommel.

"I noticed you didn't look at the weapons when we reached Capua Torim." Rita notes, watching the man put the blades into their slings at his sides.

"Don't you look for better weapons?" Karol tilts his head as they leave, watching Lloyd.

"No." He looked startled at the thought. "I... made a pact involving these swords... and they're from my dad and my father." Yuri gave him an eyebrow raised look, Rita tilting her head bemusedly, and Karol looking confused. Lloyd realized what their expressions indicated, and paled. "Oh, Tree no! Not like that! My foster-father and my blood-father." He blinked a few more times and turned ashen green. "Oh, Sylph, no, that's disgusting." Lloyd rubbed at his eyes, making a few more disturbed noises while Yuri laughed a little. "That's... really disturbing. I need some sort of bleach for my brain."

"So you don't try out new swords?" Yuri asks, eyeing the pair.

"Nope. I've yet to run into ones better than these two." Lloyd patted them fondly. "Well, that's a lie." Lloyd tilts his head, scratching behind an ear. "I have those ones too, but I like these better. They're more important ...to me..." He looked a way for a second, then back at them with a bright grin. "Besides, the more I use The Material Blades, the better they get. And, they're a _great_ casting-boost." Lloyd was pointedly ignoring any knights who watched them, watched Yuri, watched him, although Rita was glaring at the lot as they exited the Knight Headquarters, which looked a bit like it was used more for storage. It wasn't so gray outside, although the town was still an off-brown color.

"So Estelle's going back home, huh." Karol changes the subject when they pause at a t-cross road.

"You don't have a problem with this, Yuri?" Rita turns to him. Yuri blinks at her, a little amused, a little startled.

"It's not my decision to make." Yuri says, leaning against the wall. Lloyd looks a bit twitchy, a bit antsy as he studies the city.

"Well, I guess that's true, but..." Rita trails off as Yuri seems perfectly fine.

"More importantly, where are we?" Yuri looks about.

"I remember hearing 'Heliord'." Lloyd says, scratching his head. "I might remember wrong, because my head was trying to play marching... Complete with drums..."

"It should be." Karol says. "Geographically speaking, it's located between Torim Harbor and the city of Dahngrest. It was only just recently built. It's still a very new town." Lloyd frowns, looking about, while Karol continues. "If you follow this road to the east you'll hit Caer Bocram, where we were earlier. Cut thought the west and go to the north west to reach Dahngrest."

"I see." Yuri glances at Karol. "... Well, maybe I'll have a look around the town a bit." Rita studies Yuri for a second, before turning.

"...I've got my own business to attend to." Rita says, looking into the wind.

"Hmm... what to do.." Karol mutters.

"I might join you." Lloyd says, flicking his eyes to Yuri, then to the town. "If I had hackles..." Karol gave Lloyd a confused glance, before wandering a bit back to sit in the lee of the wind, Repede trotting off to the west side of town with Rita.

"Something about this town making you antsy, Lloyd?" Yuri asks, glancing up at the taller male.

"...Many things." Lloyd admits as they start walking, his hands in his pockets and shoulders hunched. "The...rather visible ratio of... armored to unarmored." He frowned at a knight who had double-too and then straightened as they passed. "They've already got a barrier. Why are there so many knights ... standing about? And why do the non-com's look so ragged?" Yuri raised an eyebrow at Lloyd.

"Non-coms..?" He said questioningly. Lloyd blinked once, twice, then gave a sheepish almost-grimace-smile.

"Non-combatants. They don't exactly look like... towns folk, more like laborers..." As Yuri looked about with this new take on the people working, Lloyd rubbed the back of his head. "Or maybe I'm just paranoid. That ...wouldn't surprise me." They passed Rita inspecting the large, curved Blastia in the middle of what looked like it would become a town square, and spotted a pair of blondes, nearly even and identical but for the blue armor one wore, and the fine green coat the other wore.

"Oh, so both of you were here the whole time!" Yuri's voice as a cheerful mix of sarcasm and false joy. Lloyd snorted, nodding to the imperial Heir as the Heir nodded to them.

"Yuri, please watch your speech in front of His Royal Highness." Flynn chides. "You could at least show due courtesy to the gracious pardoner of your crimes." Flynn points out, needling a little purposefully.

"It's okay, Flynn." Ioder glanced at the knight. "Miss Estellise and I acted of our own volition."

"Very nice of you, I think." Lloyd muses, tilting his head. "How long did it take you to rack up that many 'crimes against the peace of the empire'?" When Yuri gave the older male a glance, Lloyd raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"Didn't you say you'd been on a wanted poster before too?" Yuri asks.

"Maybe. Only for two things." Lloyd rubbed his head as Flynn's stance shifted slightly. "And neither as heinous as throwing a knight into a river!" he said it with mock horror. He blinked, grimacing. "Well, four. But two of those were by some guy using a magic item to look and sound like me. And they were pretty bad."

"What'd the fake-you do?" Yuri asks. Lloyd gives him the look of 'Why did have to ask that', but sighs, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking away.

"Massacre, or at least start the massacre of, two cities." Ioder blinked, taking a half step back as Yuri and Flynn double took at the brunette man. "He's dead now, and that ... ability was... reclaimed by its master." He spotted the wary and strange looks. "Don't worry, I'm still no-where near good enough to level cities. That's what my dad's good at." He took their looks in again. "... that was meant to be re-assuring."

"It wasn't." Yuri says flatly. "Remind me not to piss off your dad."

"Yuri...." Flynn grimaces at Yuri's language.

"Don't worry, there's relatively few things that can truly make him that angry." Lloyd grins a bit. "And one's very much dead." Deciding now was a very good time to change the subject, Flynn looked at the pair, then what was behind the Knight and Heir.

"You've already heard about Princess Estellise then, I see." Flynn guesses their intentions based on the fact that he and Ioder stood on the way to the Inn.

"Yeah, I heard." Yuri went with the subject change, returning his attention to Flynn.

"Yuri, I thought that traveling with you would be to Her Highness' own benefit, but..." Flynn looked for a good way to say this.

"I think I'm going to leave you three to your chat and see about getting us a room at the inn." Lloyd says, looking uncomfortable in someone else's conversation, and moves past the blonde pair to the establishment.

* * *

Returning from giving the Tweedle's A and B a beat down to remember, at their request even, Yuri stretched and entered the inn, Repede uncurling from the doorstep to follow. To one side was a shop, where Lloyd browsed gels, food items, and what looked to be crafting materials.

"We've got a room." Lloyd says as Yuri passes him to the inn's registry desk, causing the other swordsman to change directions and browse the stock, trading his blade for an axe and studying the armor.

"I see." Yuri says, restocking on healing items himself. Lloyd tossed him the key as Karol and Rita rejoined them.

"I thought you went to see Estellise?" Rita asks-says, watching the darker clad swordsman.

"She must have been exhausted today." Yuri turns for the stairs up. "I didn't want to wake her up. We can still talk tomorrow."

"Right." Karol says happily. "Why don't we all return to our rooms, then."

"See you in the morning." Lloyd looks pleased with his purchases as they vanish into his pack in his pockets.

* * *

Raaaaaaaaaaaaawr.


	10. Heliord

Yuri woke to a door in the inn slamming shut, one pair of angry footsteps and two calmer ones indicating people leaving. Curiosity got the better of him, so he grabbed his stuff and followed far enough back that he couldn't see whoever it was, but he definitely recognized that voice. It didn't help that it was an almost-shout.

"-stays the same, I'm not an Imperial, I'm not a knight, I don't want to be a knight, I don't want a brigade, I don't want your Gald." Lloyd's voice was tight and annoyed. "I don't want to become someone to be ordered about. I prefer things this way."

"As a near penniless free-lancer?" It took Yuri a moment to place that low voice. "A warrior in the-"

"-I have enough Gald for my needs, and then some." Lloyd cuts him off. "I happen to like these clothes, these weapons, this armor."

"You're contribution to the empire shouldn't go u-"

"-I joined the war to stop people from dying." Lloyd didn't want Alexei to keep talking, despite becoming quite rude. "Obviously, people still did. I don't like wars, and that's what armies are for. My answer is still no." there was a pause.

"If you joined the knights, you wouldn't have to worry about people noti-"

"-If people haven't yet, then people likely won't. If anyone does, I'll just go hermit. It might do me some good." Lloyd's voice was struggling to rise, then fell to a forced calm, pleasant voice. "I would prefer it if you didn't **think** about my problems, Commandant. You should be focused on your people and their problems, not me and mine. May your day be interesting." There was a cloth-rustling noise, and then the still slightly angry footsteps came closer. Yuri pushed off from the wall, yawning and rubbing his eyes as Lloyd came around the corner, expressive face rather angry. He stopped short, spotting the dark haired swordsman, then sighed. "Think I woke the place up?" Lloyd managed not to sound as much angry as annoyed as he ran a hand back through his hair.

"If you keep stomping around like you're imitating an earthquake, you might succeed in that goal." Yuri points out. Lloyd blinks, frowning for a second, before releasing a great sigh.

"I shouldn't have let my temper get the better of me." Lloyd mutters, rubbing his temples. "I know that. I really do." It was more like he was muttering to himself.

"Still not over the Aer-Sickness?" Yuri asks, frowning a little. Lloyd blinks at him under his hand.

"What? That?" Lloyd blinked again, his eyes flicking to the right then back to Yuri. "Oh, yeah, over that. Definitely. I was done with Aer-Sickness before we got to Heliord." Lloyd wriggled a finger in his ear. "I've just got this ringing in my ears that won't go away." Yuri raised an eyebrow, not able to hear anything himself, but Lloyd didn't elaborate for his lack of hearing. "I'll meet you guys downstairs. I'm only half-dressed." Yuri blinked, not quite seeing it beyond the lack of red coat, before noticing the lack of armor, the pants that weren't as loose as they usually were, and the bare hands and feet, a gold pendant visible over his shirt. Lloyd grin-grimaced at him. "Not that you're one to complain to." He says, commenting on Yuri's fashion of a half-open shirt, passing the swordsman to go back to his room.

"... Huh." Yuri blinks as the elder swordsman shut the door behind him, before returning to his room to make sure he'd gotten all signs of sleep from his face.

Lloyd was downstairs before him, carefully performing maintenance on the red blade, Karol watching a little avidly. This might have to do with the fact that Lloyd's cloth was smoking a bit as he ran it over the flame shaped blade of some sort of crystalline material that glowed a softer flame-shade than when the man was swinging it.

"Does it really need maintenance?" Yuri asks, watching as Lloyd crushed a small crystal in his hand before returning to cleaning. "It takes care of anything on it by itself, doesn't it?" Lloyd glanced at him, then at his cloth, grimacing at its state.

"More or less." Lloyd lifted the blade off his knees and the cloth ignited and vanished in smoke. "But a well cared for blade works better for its wielder." He grinned widely as he brushed the traces of ashes from the blade. "Besides, Flamberge would get jealous if I only paid attention to Vorpal Edge." Karol recoiled.

"You swords can get jealous?!" Karol stared at the red and gold blade at Lloyd's side as the man stands.

"Nope. I was joking." Lloyd grins at him again as they met up with Rita, Repede shifting a little anxiously.

"... What's the matter, Repede?" Yuri asks, noticing. Lloyd was rubbing his head again, while Karol glanced about.

"Do you guys hear a strange sound?" Karol asks. Lloyd blinks, while Rita tilts her head.

"Now that you mention it, yeah..." Rita says.

"Oh, thank the Tree..." Lloyd sighs, giving up on his head rubbing. "I thought I was the only one."

"Oh, I've been hearing that the barrier Blastia's been acting up lately..." the Inn keep says, overhearing them and distracting them from Lloyd's strange set of words. Rita blinks, turning and heading quickly for the door.

"Hey, hold your horses!" Yuri says quickly, stopping Rita.

"I can't!" Rita does stop, but it's clear she really wants to continue.

"Commandant Alexei is there, isn't he?" Yuri asks a bit rhetorically. "He should be able to take care of it."

"Rita, if we let you go out on your own, it'll just be another repeat of Ehmead Hill." Karol says. Lloyd blinks, looking between them then giving a tiny shrug.

"Well, if you want, we could at least let Flynn know about it." Yuri concedes, and they left the inn at a respectable quick walk. Lloyd held his ears as they passed the Barrier Blastia, looking a bit pained and sticking with Repede on the other side of the party from the Blastia. The twin-blade pointedly ignored the pink themed knights that were scattered around town and in the Chevaliers HQ they entered to find Flynn. In the makeshift Interrogation room they found Flynn and Estelle.

"The barrier Blastia's been making some odd noises. Do you think it's okay?" Yuri says as way of hello.

"Painful, high pitched noises." Lloyd adds, wriggling a finger in his ear.

"You came all the way here because you were worried about that?" Flynn asks, shaking his head. "As always, Yuri, you can't leave well enough alone if you see anything amiss."

"Hey, it's not me!" Yuri protests. "She was the one that-" when Yuri went to indicate Rita, the mage was behind him on the way out again.

"It's obvious that something's not right with that Blastia." Rita says, stopping to look at Flynn. "Let me have a look at it!"

"This Blastia is currently in a state of repair." Flynn says. "I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to examine it."

"Why!" Rita demands. A sudden shaking sets them all off balance as Lloyd holds his head again and Repede remains crouched.

"Don't tell me that was the Blastia..." before Flynn can finish saying that, Rita was out the door.

"Fine. We won't tell you." Lloyd says, following the mage.

"Maybe something's happened to the Blastia!" Estelle puts it together.

"Let's get outta here!" Yuri says. Repede turns and follows, shouldering the door open enough for him.

"Your Highness, you must stay here!" Estelle said nothing in reply to Flynn, or what she said was covered by the remaining three exiting. Flynn, Karol and Yuri caught up with Rita, Lloyd and Repede before the 'town square' as the mage stared at orange glowing Blastia. Rita darted forward, but Yuri caught her arm.

"Rita!" Yuri held on and caused her to stop.

"Let me go!" Rita demands, turning to glare at him. "I can't just leave him like this! The aer is just pouring out of this thing! At this density it might kill someone!" As Rita said this, several townsfolk collapsed from the glowing ring that was slowly spreading.

"And what about you?!" Yuri demands, refusing to let go. A sudden shake and shot of glowing Aer knocked them down and Rita away from Yuri. Rita got to her feet first and ran to the Blastia, while Yuri paused, holding a hand before his eyes as the Aer stopped him.

"Dammit! That girl's Blastia crazy!" Yuri grits his teeth. Rita worked her way to the Blastia, pulling herself up its frame so she could pull the seal and keys into existence.

"It's okay, I'll just readjust the volume of Aer." Rita says. "You'll be just like new!" Lloyd twisted past Yuri.

"Excuse me." Lloyd says, avoiding Yuri's grab on his way to the downed townsfolk. Rita typed furiously, ignoring the golden-orange-red glow about the Blastia and directly below her while Lloyd moved almost unhampered to the downed civilians to pull them back to Yuri.

"It's too dangerous!" Flynn shouts, getting back up from his shock-wave-fall. "You've got to get out of here!"

"Sorry Knight boy!" Lloyd shouts, setting another civilian down and darting back through the thick Aer.

"... Lead the civilians out of the city, as well as the Princess and the others." Alexei arrived on the scene and gave Flynn orders.

"Yes sir." Flynn straightened and turned to do the commandants bidding.

"The Aer is completely out of control." Alexei says. "There's no telling what it will do."

"...No!" Rita shouts. "The flow of aer has outstripped his capacity. At this rate, it'll either swallow the city or even explode."

"E-explode?" Lloyd pulled the man awake to his feet. "Did you hear that?!"

"Everybody, get out of here!" Another townsman says, staggering. "Hurry!"

"I'll help. This should help!" Lloyd shouts, crackling lights running up his arms, he stepped back into the thick of the Air, not quite so near as Rita but still quite close to the glow. "Release Thor's Hammer!" he thrust his hands up, the orange glow lessening about him for a second as violet raced up his arms.

"What are you doing?!" Yuri demands, before spotting the flare of runes that indicated a spell spiraling about Lloyd.

"_Indignation!_" Lloyd casts the high level spell **backwards**, placing himself and his hands just below the spark from which the bolt of lightning cast itself from – and in true with Lloyd's spells, it was several times larger than it should have been. The twin-blade was knocked to the ground with the shock as the bolt loosed itself into the sky, the thunderclap knocking people down and making the city shake.

"What are you thinking?!" Alexei demands, stopping behind Yuri as Lloyd laughed, sprawled on his back.

"Getting rid of Aer!" Lloyd shouts, remaining on his back as he keeps laughing, but raised his arms once more. "Burn to oblivion!" He started laughing hard, almost enough not to seem to be able to breathe as red flared up his arms and into the runes for a spell about him. "_Infernal Prison!_" just above Rita's head flared a large red and orange seal, the runes etched into it in yellow. Flames shot out and up in four plumes, then in rings to the sky.

"Lloyd...!" Rita seemed aware of what the man was doing after this spell faded from the sky as he continued laughing.

"Always wanted to say that!" Lloyd gasps out, half covering his face with his hands as he continued laughing. "Always! Want a jolt?!" his hands went up again, violet crackling in the air and in the runes about him. "_Volt Arrow!_" Three orbs of lightning formed high in the sky above him, crackling over Lloyd's laughter as Estelle left the HQ. They formed a triangle of lightning as a great bolt struck the center.

"Rita!" Estelle shouts, spotting the mage before the laughing Lloyd and rushing for the town square.

"Ya'know..." Lloyd almost gasped it out through his laughter. "Always... wanted to say sommat else, too!"

"Princess?!" Alexei shouted as the pinkette passed him.

"Gah!" Yuri's exclamation was most like a yelp as Estelle passed him.

"Your Highness!" Flynn shouts.

"Burn baby!" Lloyd cackles, raising his hands again as fire wreathed his fingers and red runes sprang into the air. "_Infernal Prison!_" Estelle covered her head as the seal formed in the air again, but larger than before.

"What are you doing?!" Whether it was to Lloyd or Estelle, Yuri didn't specify.

"Rita! I'm here!" Estelle was glowing just as brightly, if not brighter than the Blastia. Rita straightened, looking startled.

"...Estellise..." Rita says, staring.

"... Commandant?!" Alexei's Krityan companion moved to his side. The white haired man nodded as Lloyd continued laughing, not even trying to move anymore.

"How is this stuff bad?!" Lloyd asked the air, laughing fit to burst, his arms about his chest now rather than on his face. Rita began typing furiously once more.

"There, got it..." the Blastia began glowing even brighter, then flashed, exploding. "Aaaah!"

Estelle sat up, spotting Rita sprawled next to her and Lloyd crumpled at the base of the wall, but still laughing, albeit weakly. Rita was still, however, so Estelle crawled over to her.

"Rita! Hang on!" Estelle glowed yellow and then it flowed into Rita. The sky, which had been shot full of lightning and fire, finally let it rain fall while Estelle gasped for breath. "...Please ... get a room ready... for Rita..."

"Do you even hear what you're saying?" Yuri asks. "You're just as worn out as she is."

"Prepare rooms at once!" Flynn orders, half crouched near the pair of females. "I'll take her there myself." Flynn gathers up Rita.

"Karol, can you stand?" Yuri turns to the guildsman.

"Y-yeah..." Karol takes his eyes away from Lloyd with a shudder, getting up.

"Come on, we're going too." Yuri turns and walks over to Lloyd, who was still laughing weakly against the half-wall. "... Can you stand?"

"I think so." Lloyd says, and struggles to get his feet under him. He doesn't get further than that, falling on his side with more laughter. "Guess not."

"Were those Advanced spells?" Yuri pulls him up.

"Yes, oh yes, yes they were." Lloyd laughs a little, barely able to keep up even then.

".. You're mad." Yuri says flatly.

"Likely, very so very likely." Lloyd almost laughs it, before suddenly cutting off with a choked noise. "... I feel like shit." He moans it, drooping.

".. About time the Aer sickness kicked in." Yuri says, keeping him up. "If you're gonna spew, don't do it on me."

"I'll try to warn ya." Lloyd groans, staring at the ground as he tried to keep his feet working in the right direction. They managed a few paces, behind Sodia who supported Estelle, before Lloyd made a gagging noise. ".. warn-" Yuri turned and pushed Lloyd to the stone edge, the twin-blade stumbling, but getting his head over it before he threw up. Yuri watched as Lloyd half collapsed on rail, sounding thoroughly miserable while he emptied his stomach.

"You all right?" Yuri asks as Lloyd stops spewing and his breathing stables again.

"... No." Lloyd mutters, still draped half over the rail. "I... can't... think." He mumbles.

"Can you walk?" Yuri passes him a cloth usually used for cleaning whatever weapon he currently wielded, which the twin-blade used with a thanking mutter to wipe down his face, then his mouth.

"... Maybe. If I can get to..." Lloyd was talking slowly, as if he had to put the words out carefully. Yuri watched as he blinked, glancing at him with still heavily red eyes. "... I lost that sentence."

"... I'm going to take that as a no then." Yuri sighs, and pulls the taller male to his feet. "Walk."

"... Right." Lloyd mutters, and stares firmly at the ground and his feet in order to keep them working. Yuri still has to help him back into the inn, where they were directed to the room on the end of the upper corridor. Yuri knocked while Lloyd struggled to remain standing, and heard Estelle.

"..C-come in." She sounded exhausted yet. But, invited so, Yuri opened the door and made sure Lloyd didn't face plant on his way to one of the free beds.

"... You can't keep using your healing Artes on her forever, Estelle." Yuri says, walking over to the princess. The Mage on the bed before her was either asleep or simply unconscious yet, a towel over her eyes. "Come on, let's let her rest for now."

"Yes..." Estelle released the golden glowing seal about her.

"I can't believe she had to go and do something like that." Yuri says, watching the mage. "On that thought, what were **you** thinking?" Yuri turns to look at Lloyd.

"Big spells use... a lot of Aer..." Lloyd says slowly, muffled by the pillow. "So, if there's... a lot of Aer... use a lot of ... big spells. And... I .. my head hurts." Lloyd groaned, holding his head.

"And you..." Yuri pokes the twin-blade back on track.

".. Use... too much for spells... so..." Lloyd trailed off in defeat.

"... You thought using Advanced Spells would make the Aer go away." Yuri puts together. ".. Didn't Rita say that wouldn't work?"

"... Did... she?" Lloyd mumbles. "... I can't think."

"Well... Once Rita chooses to do something, she won't listen to anyone else..." Estelle says.

"Sounds like that applies to Lloyd too." Yuri says, before turning his attention back to Estelle. "And you're one to talk! You were just as bad as she was." Estelle blinked away from him and back to Rita.

"... I'm sorry." Estelle says. Yuri moves behind the princess so that he was between the bed that held Rita and the empty one between the mage and the twin-blade.

"I'm going to stay here. You should go rest." Yuri says. "Aren't you tired from using your healing Artes so much?" Estelle shakes her head, then makes an abrupt topic change.

"I'm jealous of Rita." Estelle admits. "She has something he cares about so much..."

"And so can you, if you spend enough time looking for it." Yuri says. "But you need to go and get some sleep now." He sees through her topic change.

"No, I'm fine." Estelle doesn't look at him as she says this. "Yuri, you should get some sleep, yourself."

"Flynn will get mad at me if you pass out." Yuri says, trying a different angle.

"So let him get mad at you." Estelle says. The pair were abruptly reminded that Lloyd was still aware by the way he laughed a bit at Estelle's retort, before cutting off with a pained noise. Yuri watched the princess, amused, before sighing and turning to leave.

"Look, don't come asking me to take your place when you collapse from exhaustion!" Yuri says.

"I can't ask you to take my place if I've already collapsed, can I?" Estelle retorts again, earning another weak laugh from Lloyd, while Yuri shook his head and sighed, leaving at last.

* * *

Yuri knocked on the door some hour or so latter, and Rita invited him in.

"Glad to see you're awake." Yuri says, walking over. Estelle was collapsed near the mages feet, asleep on the bed. Lloyd was still sprawled on the bed he'd claimed, looking less miserable but still quite a bit unhappy. Yuri stopped behind Estelle, who managed to stay half on her seat even while half on the bed. "... And after I told her over and over to call me before she collapses."

"You didn't think she'd really listen to you, did you?" Rita asks.

"Uuh..." Estelle mumbles in her sleep.

"... heh, she looks happy." Rita notes, watching the princess. She blinked, then looked at Yuri. "Hey so..." she looked away. "What do you think Estellise thinks of me?" she blinked and glared at Yuri as his expression shifted into comic surprise complete with a half crouch. "Why are you making that face?" Yuri straightened, wiping his expression back to his normal 'poker face'.

"I just didn't think you were the kind of person who cared what other people thought." Yuri says, turning toward the large window.

"F-forget it." Rita turns to look out the window as well. "You can go now." Yuri decided he'd teased the teen mage enough for now.

"Compared to those formulas of yours, she should be easy to figure out." Yuri says.

"Uhhh... Huh?" Estelle mumbles, and wakes. "Rita!" She sits up. "You're awake!" She reaches out her left hand. "But be careful! It's just when you think you've recovered that you're in the most danger." She glows golden and her _First Aid_ flows into Rita.

"It's all right, I'm fine." Rita says, before tilting her head. "Also, you don't need to pretend to be using that Blastia anymore." Estelle's recoil is a visible, and hastily caught and cut off.

"I... What do you mean?" Estelle stammers and plays confused.

"It's pretty cool that you can use Healing Artes without a Blastia." Yuri says, which caused Estelle to blink and jump a bit.

"Mmmhn." Lloyd mutters. "Is nice. You can't break it and... yeah..." Lloyd drops his head back on the pillow and gives up.

"B-but.." Estelle dropped her head forward. "How did you...?" Lloyd jerked, sitting up too quickly by the way his face tinged green as a roar reached them while he gagged. In the large open window dropped the dragon rider.

"What the?" Yuri demands, crouching.

"Hey, it's that dragon freak!" Rita shouts. The Rider indicated forward with its lance, the dragon rearing its head back. Estelle grabbed onto Rita, Yuri flinging his sling away on his way in front of them, while Lloyd struggled to keep whatever was left in his stomach there. The dragon breathed fire in while Estelle pulled Rita away, into the space between the bed Lloyd had claimed and the middle one, Yuri guarding and managing not to get singed too badly. Yuri rushed to the rail as the dragon turned away.

"Rita, are you all right?" Estelle asks.

"Don't you ever learn?" Rita asks back.

"It sounds like the sky's falling in here." Karol shouts as he runs in. "What's going on?" the dragon made another pass, roaring. "... Huh? Aaaah!" the Dragon Rider didn't return after that, flying away. "W-what was that thing?"

"Just when the conversation was getting interesting." Rita says, as a sort of 'look what the cat dragged in' sort of comment about Karol.

"That's enough talk about Estelle's healing Artes for now." Yuri picks his axe-sling back up.

"Fine by me." Rita says. "I've pretty much figured it out, anyway." Estelle watches Yuri, who noticed, and glanced her way.

"Don't look at me like that." Yuri complains. "Do I really look like that much of a bad guy to you?"

"Yes." Rita crossed her arms firmly, and Estelle giggles.

"Not.. really." Lloyd shook his head – he'd just dunked it in the little pool behind the beds. "If you lightened up your wardrobe, then you wouldn't.." he cut off again with a choked noise and covering his mouth to avoid spewing.

"...Hey wait." Karol looks between the mage, healer and swords-axe man. "What's going on you guys? Come on, tell me!"

"Lloyd's getting over Aer Sickness." Rita says, indicating the twin-blade, who was green-faced and miserable.

"... I can see that!" Karol is annoyed.

"In anycase, it's time to sleep." Yuri gave Estelle a meaningful look. "All of us." Estelle smiled a little.

* * *

"Well, take care on the way back to the capital." Yuri says to Estelle. Lloyd wasn't green-faced anymore, but he still blinked and came back from la-la land occasionally.

"Okay." Estelle says.

"Do you have everything?" Yuri asks. "Wouldn't want to have to come back later."

"If I forget anything, you'll bring it to me, won't you, Yuri?" Estelle asks with a smile.

"Hah, yeah right." Yuri says. "Okay, let's go find Flynn. I'll take you that far." Yuri makes a subject change.

"U-um, what are you all going to do after this?" Estelle asks.

"Hmm. Well, we did lose track of the Blood Alliance..." Yuri says, tapping his chin in thought.

"That's easy, we can just go to Dahn..." Karol started out enthusiastic, then it faltered. "grest. Or not." Karol deflated a bit. "Man, if I go back there now, they'll all just laugh at me..." the boy mutters.

"Dahngrest?" Yuri glances down at Karol, pretending not to hear the last line. "That's the guild city, right?"

"Y-yeah." Karol looks up again. "I thought we could find out about the Blood Alliance there..."

"What direction is it from here?" Yuri asks.

"Well, it's to the west I guess, but..." Karol trails off.

"Let's check it out, then." Yuri says, before smiling a little. "Might be helpful for anybody thinking of starting a guild, too." Karol blinks, then grins.

"Huh? For starting a guild?" He nearly jumps for joy. "Well let's go, then!" Rita sighs.

"Lloyd?" Estelle asks. The twin-blade blinks, blinking again as he noticed attention on him.

"Huh? Oh, me. Right." He rubbed the side of his head, and pushed wet hair out of his face. "I'm looking for several things... And the Empire..." Lloyd grimaced. "I've gotten nothing on any of the three there, so Guild City sounds like a good way to go..." Lloyd pauses, staring off, then blinks and looks back at them. "Hope you don't mind me tagging along till then, at the least."

"Nope." Yuri shrugs, before turning toward the Blastia and the 'town square'. Despite the heavy rain, there were still several people toiling, and a pair inspecting the Blastia.

"It doesn't seem like that Flynn character is around here." Rita says, as there was no blonde in blue in sight.

"Does that mean you're staying with us for now?" Karol asks of Estelle.

"Well, I..." Estelle trailed off, then clasped her hands. "Would that be all right?"

"Karol, don't fill the princess's head with ideas." Yuri says, leaning against the stone wall.

"Your cannot simply do as you wish." Alexei joined them. Lloyd grimaces and turns to watch out of the city. "Your highness must return to the capital." Alexei stopped next to Estelle, his Krityan companion stopping two paces behind him. "Flynn has already set out to tend to other business." Estelle looks down, and Alexei turns and walks to Rita. "Now then, Rita Mordio, we would like you to investigate yesterday's Blastia malfunction."

"... That's pointless." Rita says, shrugging her palms up. "I looked at him this morning, but I couldn't figure anything out."

"No, we would ask that you go to the forest of Keiv Moc." Alexei says.

"... Keiv Moc, huh?" Karol mutters. "Oh yeah, the plants affected by the disaster here look just like the ones in that forest." Karol says, smiling.

"We have reports of tree mutations and of monsters increasing in both number and aggressiveness." Alexei explains. "Messangers have gone to the capital, but much time will be wasted finding a gifted mage."

"I specialize in Blastia." Rita says, wrapping hair about her fingers. "Plants are out of my league."

"Consider their connection to the Aer." Alexei says. "I imagine that is within your league."

"Besides... I..." Rita looks down. "If Estelle is going back to the capital, I want to go with her." The Krityan aide looked at the princess before Estelle looked up.

"What do you mean?" Estelle asks, looking about.

"You are a researcher in an imperial Blastia laboratory." Alexei reminds the teen mage. "You must undertake the tasks assigned to you." Rita looked up, eyes narrowed, but Estelle darted between the mage and the white haired commandant.

"Um... Then there should be no problem if I accompany her to the forest, right?" Estelle asks. Alexei looks like he'd like to sigh, but was too proper to do so.

"Princess, please, do not make suggestions that are simply out of the question." Alexei says.

"If this does have something to do with Aer, then my healing Artes would prove useful." Estelle says.

"Yes, they would..." It didn't quite sound like Alexei was agreeing with the same thing that Estelle had said.

"Please, Alexei! Let me do my part to help." Estelle says.

"Your Highness, I simply cannot allow you to go to such a dangerous forest." Alexei manages not to quite sound like he's protesting while protesting.

"Well, what if..." Estelle said a bit slowly, obviously thinking, before she turns about. "Yuri, would you come with us?" Yuri blinked.

"Me?" He asks, startled.

"If Yuri were to come, you wouldn't be worried right?" Estelle asks. Alexei looks down, thinking.

"Young man, please escort the Princess." Alexei says, looking at Yuri. "I ask this of you only because you once sought to join the Imperial Knights."

"... Of all the underhanded..." Yuri mutters, shoving off the wall. "I didn't ask anybody to count on me. You're pushing me into this." Yuri grumbles.

"Lloyd Aurion-Irving." Alexei looked at the brunette twin-blade, who frowned up at him. "You too, I would ask to escort the princess. As –"

"I'm not one of your men to order about, Commandant." Lloyd cuts him off. "I'm not one of your citizens, either. I'll go with them, because I want to go with them."

"It seems I can take your reply as indication of your agreement." Alexei gives a tiny smile.

"... I stepped right into that." Lloyd mutters, crossing his arms. Yuri turns to face the knight.

"But there's something I have to do as well." Yuri says. "We go to the forest after Dahngrest."

"Very well." Alexei says, turning to leave.

"Your Excellency.." the Krityan sort of asks, sort of reprimands the Commandant.

"It seems Flynn foresaw this outcome." Alexei says. Yuri overhears.

"Huh? He did what?" Yuri turns toward the commandant. The Krityan moved off while Alexei turned back to the party.

"He left this message for you: 'Take care of Her Highness'." Alexei says. Estelle bows to Alexei.

"All right then, it's the forest of Keiv Moc by way of Dahngrest." Karol says.

"We've got everything for that trip?" Lloyd asks, starting for the western exit.

"Yeah."


	11. Swarm

"This is Dahngrest, my hometown." Karol says, introducing the group to the dusk-covered city as they reached it, rather than stood upon the large bridge.

"Looks like a pretty lively place." Yuri says, sounding approving as he looks about. The buildings were sort of a plain sort, off-gray with wooden supports and linings, windows glowing orange.

"Well, it's the second largest city after the imperial capital." Karol explains. "It's run entirely by the guilds."

"I'd thought it would be more dark and dank, you know?" Yuri glances away. "Like a den of villains."

"That's just a prejudice people have about the guilds." Karol says.

"They're like anyone else." Lloyd shrugs. "There's good guilds, bad guilds, neutral guilds. Like Knights, Merchants, or everyday people."

"I'm sure the bad reputation of the Blood Alliance is to blame for that." Estelle says.

"Yeah." Karol sighs, looking down. "Jeez, Yuri. You make it sound like I'm a villain."

"If you're a villain, what does that make him?" Rita points at Yuri.

"Point taken." Yuri says, while Estelle giggles. "So, how should we go about tracking down Barbos?" Yuri makes a subject change.

"The best way is probably to stop by the Union and check there." Karol says.

"The Union. A guild collective run by the five so-called 'master guilds'." Estelle recites. "... Right?"

"Yeah." Karol agrees with Estelle's textbook description. "The Union also serves as the city's government."

"But, how is this gonna work?" Rita asks. "Isn't Barbos' Blood Alliance one of the five master guilds?"

"Which means if we lay a hand on him, we'll be picking a fight with the Union as well." Yuri notes.

"... We won't know the answer to that until we ask the Don." Karol says.

"The Don is the boss of the Union, isn't he?" Yuri asks.

"Yep. Don Whitehorse, leader of Altosk, the most powerful of the five master guilds." Karol explains.

"All right, let's go see what the Don has to say then." Yuri says.

"Hey wait, he's not the kind of person you can just meet..." Karol looks down. "I don't really know if..."

"Please?" Estelle asks.

"The union headquarters..." Karol mutters. Lloyd tilts his head.

"That... would be... on the other side of town." Lloyd says, thinking.

"You've been here before?" Karol asks, tilting his head.

"I'm 36, of course I've been here. I've been a good many places." Lloyd shrugs.

"... You're over thirty?" Rita asks, sounding heavily skeptical as she eyed the twin blade. "I'd say you're not."

"I was 21 fifteen years ago, that makes me 36 now." Lloyd says, crossing his arms. "Unless this is past the eighth month. Then I'm 37."

"It's not. I thought you were around 25." Yuri notes. Lloyd blinked a few times, scratching behind an ear.

"Runs in the family." Lloyd says evasively, crossing his arms.

"What does being that old have to do with anything?" Estelle tilts her head.

"It means I've had a lot of time to wander about." Lloyd shrugs. "I've been most places, just not that recently. I haven't been here for eleven years... and it's been even longer since I've hit up Zaiphas." He paused, glancing to the right. "Okay, so I hit up the towns once then spent most of the past ten years as a hermit."

"That would explain things." Karol says.

"You should probably lead the way." Lloyd says. "I remember the streets back then, you know them now." Estelle was frowning thoughtfully at Lloyd again.

"R-right." Karol blinked down then off.

"I still think you're lying." Rita says, frowning at the twin-blade.

"Whether you believe me or not, I know my age and you not believing me doesn't make that any different." Lloyd shrugs, crossing his arms behind his head, following Karol. Karol paused in what amounted to a second 'town square' sort of place, looking about.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Rita demands to know why they had stopped.

"What?" Karol blinks. "Uh, n-nothing."

"Hmm?" Rita, or their party in general, had attracted the notice of two Guildsmen standing nearby and talking. The speaker wore steel and a blue headband and the other wore... significantly less armor in a brown and belty sort of fashion. "Well, well, if it ain't little Karol!" They walked toward the group, pausing just out of reach.

"What the hell are you thinking, coming back here?" the other asks.

"H-hey!" Karol tries not to duck his head completely. "Wh-what's with you?!"

"Yeah, I don't see Nan." The first says, eyes roving over the group. "She already ditch you?" He laughed after he said that, as if the answer was obvious.

"N-no way!" Karol shouts. "She wouldn't stop nagging so I took off!" Yuri tilted his head, glancing at Estelle over Karol's head.

"So are you the latest guild to take him in?" The less armored of the pair asks. "You could do a lot better than that loser!"

"All this kid can brag about is the number of guilds he's joined!" the more armored says. "Oh, right, that's a bad thing." Before the two could laugh, Yuri tilts his head, Karol ducking his.

"Are these your friends, Karol?" Yuri asks lightly. "You could do a lot better than these losers." Yuri spits the man's words back into his face.

"Wh-what did you say?!" the armored one demands.

"Such undignified men!" Estelle points at them accusingly.

"Shut up!" the less armored says, and Estelle drops her arm.

"Wooow." Lloyd drawls. "So touchy. Sensitive much?"

"Y-you!"

"You sure have a way of saying things." Rita crosses her arms. "I mean, you're right, but..."

"Yeah, you just keep talking..." Anything that would be said further was cut off as a warning bell-like sound cut through the air.

"What's that sound?" Rita turned and looked up.

"Damn it... they're back again..." The two guildsmen straighten and sigh.

"Come on!" they turn and leave quickly.

"The Alarm..." Karol mutters, looking back and forth. "Monsters are here." Karol explains. Lloyd was frowning at the ground, then crouched to watch pebbles move.

"Monsters?" Estelle asks, before blinking. "...Wait, is this shaking the monsters' footsteps...?"

"That, or a minor earthquake." Lloyd mutters, straightening.

"If so, they've brought quite an army." Yuri says, managing to sound cheerful.

"Yeah, but don't worry." Karol says. "Even if there have been a lot of monsters around here lately, our barrier here is strong, and it's never been broken before." Lloyd flinches as Karol says this proudly. "And the guilds take care of the monsters outside the barrier..." a static-y sound rained from above, then cracking as the rings that indicated a barrier vanished. "... Huh?" It registered on Karol. "Oh crap!"

"Never, never boast that something is infallible!" Lloyd groans, rubbing his head. "It makes Fate want to slap you and prove you wrong."

"The barrier... disappeared...?" Estelle whispers, shocked.

"What the hell is going on?!" Rita shouts. "The monsters are going to get inside!"

"Damn it, why do things like this always happen to me, no matter where I go?" Yuri complains.

"Are you sure you haven't done anything to deserve it?" Lloyd asks teasingly. Yuri glowered at him.

"You gotta be cursed." Rita pronounces. Yuri thought on that.

"... Maybe." Yuri admits.

"Yuri, we have to go stop the monsters!" Estelle says. Yuri nods, and they turn for the entrance to town again.

"... This is crazy. Where are all these monsters coming from?" Yuri says, staring at the mass of beasts crowding, and flying, about.

"Something isn't right...!" Karol says.

"Doesn't something seem different about the monsters as well?" Estelle asks, looking up and about.

"Here they come!" Rita shouts, spotting some monsters that were indeed heading their way. Lloyd, Yuri and Repede darted forward to cut into monsters. Some ran straight at them, to be taken down swiftly, but others went for fleeing civilians. A scream alerted the melee fighters of a fallen woman.

"Your go, Yuri." Lloyd shouts, slamming into another large crab monster.

"Damn..." Yuri spots the fallen woman, and quickly _Azure Edge_'d the monster harassing her. While it reeled, Yuri put himself between the woman and the monster.

"Th-thank you so much." She stammered while getting to her feet.

"Forget it, run!" Yuri snaps at her, keeping his eyes on the monsters.

"Damn it!" Lloyd shouts, spotting rhino-creatures chasing more townsfolk, running with his blades at a point before him. "Not going to make it!" Yuri lunged too, but he was further away than Lloyd. Before one of the monsters could trample a cowering townsman, a large, white haired man sliced it to pieces with a katana.

"Come on ya filthy maggots, I'll take on the lot of ya!" the man bellows. "Come see how it feels ta get beat down by an old man!" Lloyd halted hurriedly, staring.

"You!" Lloyd almost yelps, the white haired man glancing at him.

"Not now kid." He rested his blade on his shoulder and rushed the monsters, Lloyd gaping after him.

"That old guy is really going after them." Yuri notes, reaching Lloyd as several guildsman passed the pair. "Who the hell is he?"

"Don Whitehorse." Lloyd says slowly, still looking startled.

"It's the Don!" Karol cheers.

"So that's him, huh?" Yuri mutters, glancing at Lloyd, then the old man who was taking chunks out of the monster horde. "You know him?"

"ah..." Lloyd rubbed the back of his head carefully. "Sort of..." He mutters. The guildsmen, even those that Estelle was in the middle of healing, all took an immense moral boost.

"It's the Don!" Those running by, or away, cried.

"The Don's here!"

"Let's kick this monster scum outta here!"

"Defend the City!"

"Nobody messes with the Clouds of Dawn!" Yuri and Lloyd blinked as a familiar blond in blue, green-haired mage, and orange haired knight dashed past at the head of a group of knights. Estelle blinked, looking up from her healing.

"Flynn!"

"We've come to help subdue the monsters!" Flynn shouts.

"Hold yer horses, knight-boy!" Don shouts. "We couldn't live with ourselves if we let the Knights do our dirty work. Now get the hell outta here!"

"Is this really the time for that?!" Flynn asks, shocked.

"Each and every one of these people left the empire of their own free will and joined a guild!" Don snaps back. "There ain't a soul in this town so spineless they'd go runnin' ta you guys fer help."

"But!" Flynn starts.

"These're the rules of the life we've chosen. It's up to us to make sure those rules don't get broken." Don says firmly.

"Holding to your beliefs no matter what's at stake..." Yuri mutters. "So that's what a real guild is like."

"Hey, you there!" Rita shouts. Karol looks back and forth. "Lead the way."

"I have a name you know!" Karol retorts. "Wh-where are we going, anyway?"

"We're going to repair the barrier Blastia." Estelle says. "If we don't, the city will be overrun with monsters!" Karol blinks, nodding, and Lloyd took off on Karol and Estelle's heels.

"You're coming, too!" Rita says, staring at Yuri.

"Guess that's my only option." Yuri smirks, turning past her and catching up with the other three, Rita whirling and on his heels. Karol lead the way back to the cross-roads where the two guildsmen had talked, or tormented, them, then taking a right past some fleeing townsfolk, toward a staircase and a seal. There was also a guildsman still upon the ground.

"He's dead." Lloyd mutters, catching Estelle as she made to kneel. "That wound... No chance."

"We're too late.." Estelle mutters.

"Outta the way!" Rita demands. Karol moves so the mage can run to the Blastia controls up the stairs. Lloyd frowned, and followed the mage, Repede sniffing the air. "Hmmm.. I might be able to do something with this." Lloyd stood with his back to Rita, his narrowed eyes flitting about as Repede then Yuri joined him.

"Rita, watch out!" Estelle pointed up. "Behind you!" Karol and her ran up as well, Lloyd pointing his mismatched blades at the group of Red Eyes that appeared.

"We won't let you fix the barrier." One rasps.

"What the hell!" Rita snaps. "It's just one thing after another!" They didn't spare Lloyd a glance when he smothered a burst of laughter. "I'm sick of this!"

"Work on the Blastia, Rita." Lloyd says, slamming into the Red Eyes closest to Rita and bringing his blades in a parallel chop into the assassin's side. "Keep an ear on the action, but keep working." He tch'd as the man got his sleeve-daggers in the way, and struck again.

"We'll handle these guys." Yuri says, blocking the second Red Eyes and _Destruction Field_ing him over the rail. Karol yelled in an attempt to sound terrifying rather than terrified, swinging his hammer about at the third, while Estelle stood between Rita and the Red Eyes and held her shield ready. It didn't take long.

"Looks like we have those guys to thank for the barrier Blastia falling on us." Yuri notes, kicking one.

"But why?" Estelle frowns. Repede turns as armor rattles behind them, alerting them to a familiar blonde and a pair of helmed men they didn't know.

"Looks like you've got your hands full over here." Flynn comments on the slain Red Eyes.

"So, the Don's little lecture didn't stick?" Yuri asks, as Lloyd does something to rid the Vorpal Sword of frozen blood that involved holding the Flamberge with his teeth to melt the red off the blue blade.

"I'm just doing what I can to help." Flynn says. "How's the repair of the barrier Blastia going?"

"That'll depend on our genius mage, here." Yuri says, glancing up the stairs.

"... The core is still there." Rita says, sounding distracted. "They just fiddled with your formula a bit and stopped it, didn't they?" She was talking to the Blastia again. "What the...? Is this... an amplifier?! And this formula again... The same as they were using back on Ehmead Hill..."

"The barrier disappeared when the monsters attacked." Yuri decides to turn attention off the mages muttering. "It can't be a coincidence that they happened at the same time, can it?"

"...Probably not." Flynn admits.

"So does your appearance here mean this is tied up with all of the empire's problems?" Yuri asks.

"I don't know." Flynn shrugs. "That's why I came here to check things out."

"...That goes there, and this goes... here!" Rita announces, still talking more to herself. A little flash of light from above them and the rings in the sky reformed.

"That's our Rita!" Estelle cheers.

"All right, time to clean up the monsters outside the barrier!" Flynn announces to his knights. "The guilds won't be able to complain if we fight monsters outside the city." The knights dart off, and Rita joins them at the base of the stairs.

"We'll leave the monsters to Flynn." Yuri says, watching them a little. "Let's go to the Union and ask about Barbos."

"M'k." Lloyd sheathes his cleaned blades and heads off at a slower pace than Rita and Karol. Yuri caught up to them as the white armored guard stopped them.

"Hmm?" he blinked at their group. "Who are you all?"

"We need to talk to the Don about something." Yuri says, turning to the guard. "Help us out, could you?" the white armored man looked like he was going to say something, but Karol cut him off.

"It's a matter that concerns the five master guilds." Karol almost-explains. Lloyd sticks his thumbs in his belts, looking off like he was thinking.

"I haven't seen you around here recently." The guard says, leaning forward to peer at them all. "What guild do you belong to?"

"Er, we don't belong to a guild, exactly." Yuri says, a bit unsure what sort of reaction this would give him.

"...Unfortunately the Don has left town in pursuit of the monsters." The guard seemed to accept this answer.

"He went after the monsters?" Karol asks, startled.

"That... sounds like something he'd do." Lloyd mutters, tilting his head.

"Yes, he plans on taking out the monster nests in one fell swoop." The guard explains.

"That... really sounds like him." Lloyd scratches the side of his nose, a half smile formed.

"I see..." Yuri decided to ignore Lloyd's oddities for a moment more. "Thanks for the information."

"No worries." The guard shrugs.

"...If I went and helped them, I could prove myself to the Don..." Karol mutters to himself as Yuri and Estelle turn to leave, Lloyd on their heels. Karol rubbed the back of his head, then darted off before they got too far without him.

"Oh, well." Yuri shrugs, stopping. "Shall we go look for information in town?"

"...What?" Karol blinks. "We're not going to help the Don?"

"So you know where the monster nests are, then?" Yuri asks.

"Oh, good point..." Karol sighs.

"The bug monsters live in Keiv Moc." Lloyd offers, crossing his arms. "The flying ones, at least. That might be a nest."

"You've been there, too?" Rita asks a bit sarcastically.

"Near, not in." Lloyd shrugs.

".. All right then. I need to go check on Keiv Moc anyway, so why not now? It doesn't look like you're going to be making any progress soon." Rita says, crossing her arms.

"I'm going too." Estelle says. "Don't worry, even with the two of us, we'll be fine." Yuri gives Estelle a blank look.

"Sorry, 'fraid not." Yuri says, rolling his shoulders. "If you got hurt or anything, Flynn would hunt me down and kill me."

"And I don't like to break promises." Lloyd scratched the side of his head. "Even ones that weren't intentional."

"You're going to go?" Karol looks between the swordsmen.

"Well, we don't really have any good leads around town that we're following, anyway." Yuri shrugs.

"A way to pass time while the Don's out working." Lloyd says, sighing. "It'd be better to show up after he'd smashed what he can than jump him after waiting on our... butts the entire time." Yuri smirks, catching the word Lloyd had swapped out.

"Then it's decided!" Estelle smiles. "Let's go to the forest of Kiev Moc." Lloyd tilted his head as they passed the inn, wriggling a finger in his ear as if he had trouble hearing. Karol lead the way out of town, heading west.


	12. Trees

"Look at those trees." Lloyd said, awed as he ran a hand back through his hair as he tried to find a tree top.

"I had no idea trees this big existed..." Estelle stared.

"Yeah, but it doesn't exactly look healthy for them to be this overgrown." Yuri notes.

"It's just like you said, Karol." Rita is staring at an overgrown plant of some sort that seems, upon closer inspection, to be some giant form of ... moss. "It's like what happened at Heliord when the Blastia went berserk." Lloyd tilted his head, blinking about a bit confusedly while Karol shifted to grab one of the many hilts sticking from his large bag.

"Be careful... There's somebody here." Karol mutters. From about the overgrown moss tuft came a grey-brown haired man in a purple coat.

"Hey, what a coincidence!" Raven laughs it a bit, his hand on the hilt in his belt as he walks out into the open.

"What the hell are you doing in a place like this?" Yuri demands.

"Ya know, out for a forest stroll, takin' in the nature..." Raven drawls.

"Something smells fishy..." Karol says blankly. Lloyd covers the choked laugh that tried coming out at Karol's comment.

"What?" Raven asks, walking closer. "Where's my welcome?" Raven complains.

"You didn't think we'd honestly be glad to see you, right?" Rita asks.

"Aw, ya don't mean that." Raven complains. "I can come in handy ya know."

"...You're not thinking of coming with us, right?" Karol frowns.

"Of course!" Raven moves his hands to behind his high ponytail. "It's lonely bein' out here all by my lonesome." At all the blank expressions, he blinked. "What, no dice?"

"You'd better watch your back." Rita crosses her arms. "If you try anything funny, you're dead."

"Vow number 18. It's better to be deceived than to deceive." Lloyd says, shrugging, and putting his hands in his belt loops. "Vow number 20. Better to trust, and be deceived than to never trust."

"... Are you some sort of nun?" Yuri asks blandly.

"No." Lloyd blinks, double taking. "Just some basic life-guides my dad taught me growing up. There are a lot of them, and a lot you won't hear me say." Lloyd scrubs his nose.

"... Why?" Estelle tilts her head.

"Because they're insanely cheesy." Lloyd says as if this explained it all. Rita snorted.

"In anycase. I'm watching you, old man." She headed off.

"Hey, ya don't think my story stinks that bad, do ya?" Raven asks with a small whine.

"Yeah," Yuri indicates that Raven's story does indeed stink. "The stench is sort of coming off of you in waves."

"Really..?!" Raven blinks, startled, then sniffs himself.

"I can't take responsibility for what I'll do if you make any sudden moves." Yuri warns Raven. "Don't forget that." Yuri turns to follow the Mage, after which Raven shrugged and Lloyd grinned.

"C'mon, archer boy." Lloyd grins at Raven as the brown haired man blinked at the twin-blade as the rest started to move further into the forest.

"... How do you know he's an archer?" Estelle asks.

"He's got the calluses for it." Lloyd shrugs. "Add to that his hair's back out of the way of a bow string and the lack of other weapons beyond a knife..."

"Means he's either a dagger wielder, or a fist fighter-" Yuri catches onto what Lloyd was getting at.

"Calluses are on the wrong side of his hands to be a fist fighter." Lloyd shrugged self-consciously.

"... Do ya make a habit of eyein' up everybody ya meet?" Raven asks.

"Yes." Lloyd manages a wolfish smile. Raven blinked, then shrugged again, following the party as they made their way along the overgrown roots and branches.

"Lot's a bugs." Lloyd comments as he is forced to jump to knock the large beetles out of the air. "New kinds of bugs, though."

"New?" Rita asks, casting Fire spells after the plants that Repede wasn't ripping into. "You said you knew bugs lived here."

"Yes, well, I'd been used to fighting other kinds of bugs." Lloyd says, flames eating into the bugs wings as he left it to look for another target. There wasn't one from this skirmish.

"Other kinds of bugs?" Karol asks, shuddering.

"Ladybirds and mantises." Lloyd shrugs.

"Lady birds..." Yuri blinks at the brunette, imagining the little red and black beetles. "And mantises..." and the small green bugs that looked like they were praying, and Lloyd running in circles stomping on as many as possible.

"Mmmhm." Lloyd grins. "Ladybirds." His hands indicated more than head size, something about a foot and a half across. "And mantises." His hand was nearly at his chin as he indicated the height of the creature. Karol shudders, and drops the subject. After a while of the archer sort of tailing them while they took out bugs and plant monsters, they paused, and turned to him.

"Awww, don't mind me." Raven half turns away from them. "Do whatever you came to do."

"What should we do about him?" Estelle asks, turning toward Yuri and Repede.

"Do you know any tricks that'll convince us you're worth keeping around?" Yuri asks.

"Do I look like some kinda street magician to ya?" Raven rubbed the side of his face and behind an ear.

"Yep." Lloyd shifts, tilting his head. Raven grimaces at him, his hand shifting to his chin as he thought. He then lightly made his way up to them and past the last two for a shroom-road off.

"Hey, you." Raven turned and watched Karol. "C'mere a second." Estelle and Rita turned to watch Karol while the boy himself glanced back and forth.

"What?" Karol blinks, then looks back at Raven. "M-me?" Raven raised an eyebrow – he wasn't watching anyone else, so Karol colored a little bit, and went after the purple coated archer. Before he reached Raven, the older man had moved on, so Karol paused and followed along this other branch. Rita, Estelle and Yuri looked curiously on while Lloyd rubbed the side of his nose and watched. Raven left Karol standing over there, and returned lightly to the party.

"Huh? What do you want with Karol?" Yuri watches Raven. Karol blinked, turning about.

"Aaah!" Karol yelps. "Don't just leave me here!" Karol darted back to them, but a bussing sound filled the air.

"Watch-!" Lloyd half drew a blade, but Karol pulled out his axe as the beetle descended behind him.

"Show 'im what for, kid!" Raven cheers.

"W-why me?" Karol wails. He swung poorly a few times, while Raven calmly strung his blade-like bow and shot. "O-okay," Karol retreats as the bug gets furious and charges. "This isn't funny anymore!" Lloyd raised a hand, bits of red flickering about it, but Yuri shook his head, watching Raven.

"Should be any minute now..." Raven crossed his arms behind his head, watching with a bit of a smug look. Yuri raised an eyebrow, and the bug exploded.

"Aaah!" Karol yelps.

"It exploded from the inside!" Rita notes.

"What did you do?!" Estelle asks, surprised.

"Ya just wait for 'em to let their guard down, give 'em a little poke and then... Bam!" Raven explains with a grin.

"Jeez..." Rita scrubs her head. "I bet you're great at parties." The mage notes sarcastically.

"... An Arte's the easy explanation." Lloyd shrugs.

"I suppose that was good enough." Estelle smiles at Raven.

"Really?" Yuri waits half a beat before asking that in a very doubtful voice.

"Yes." Estelle insists.

"Long-range-physical attacker to balance our three close range physical attackers, our long range mage, and our two swinging mage-close-physical." Lloyd shrugs. "Worth it, for now at least." Lloyd crossed his arms.

"All right..." Yuri shrugs.

"Hey, ya mean I passed?" Raven asks, sounding hopeful. "I can stay?" he also sounds like some sort of pathetic child.

"A-are you kidding...?" Karol mutters.

"It'll be much easier to do things to him if we keep him nearby." Yuri notes, a little malevolently.

"Whaddya mean 'things'...?" Raven asks worriedly.

"... Hadn't thought about that." Rita notes, a small smile that didn't help Raven's worried expression.

"Okay, I just got a little chill up my spine." Raven admits, shivering.

"Well then, Mr. Raven, after you." Estelle gave him a tiny bow.

"Heh... Right." Raven didn't sound too enthusiastic now as he looked across the group.

There were plently more giant trees to use as paths, as well as fungus to use for bridges between the branches... or were they roots.

"Try to be careful." Rita says as they took a small lunch break. "These botanical abnormalities are being caused by the Aer here." They couldn't exactly make a circle, but they did a sort of staggered line-half-circle grouping along one large branch. "There's a good chance that there are pockets of excess Aer all over the place."

"Yeah, too much Aer can have negative effects on people and Blastia." Raven says, absently watching as Lloyd fixed up sandwiches. "Takin' in a lotta Aer causes yer metabolism ta speed up, and that'll make ya more tired than usual." Lloyd blink, looking startled then thoughtful.

"Wow, you know more than I thought." Rita's comment was both insult and quasi-praise at the same time.

"Eh?" Raven blinks. "That's just common sense!"

"I'd expect people to know about Aer's effect on the human body..." Rita says, crossing her arms. "But I didn't think it was common knowledge that Blastia can become supersaturated with Aer if used improperly."

"Nah, anyone who deals with Bodhi Blastia should know all about it!" Raven insists.

"Actually, I'd never heard about it until Rita mentioned it." Karol admits, shrugging.

"Ya gotta quit slackin' and hit the books, kid!" Raven chastises. Yuri gives Raven a look.

"All right, food. I've got a couple of different types of sandwiches." Lloyd has them balanced on the sheath of the Vorpal Blade. "Pick some." Everyone did.

".. .You didn't make enough." Rita points out that after everyone had sandwiches, including Repede, that there wasn't one for Lloyd.

"... Oh well. I'll eat the leftover meat." Lloyd shrugs, wiping down the sheath of crumbs and what not. "Forgot we grew by one." Yuri gave Lloyd a blank look as the twin-blade ate some of the sandwich leftovers, then put the rest back into their respective food bags and pocketed them. They waited a little after everyone had finished, knocking what crumbs they could find off the edge of the tree they were resting on, then moved on.

"Karol, what are you doing?" Yuri asks from his spot behind the boy. "Let's hurry up and go."

"Y-yeah..." Karol looks about quickly. Rita watched him as they heard a buzzing noise. A large beetle flew towards them, not on a collision path but above their heads as if it didn't see them. Karol did see it. "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!" Karol screams, waving his axe above his head, although he was nowhere near hitting it. It passed them without changing its flight. "Get away! Don't touch me! Stay back!" Karol continued to flail his axe in the air.

"Karol, Karol, It's okay!" Estelle couldn't get close enough to touch Karol, but she tried to reassure him anyway. "It already flew away."

"...Huh?" Karol froze in mid flail. "Ha, hahaha, it did..." He looked about quickly. "Alright, let's keep moving." Karol turns to hurry on.

"... Captain Karol seems a little different than usual, doesn't he?" Yuri muses.

"You think?" Rita asks, crossing her arms. "He seems like his usual spaced-out kid self to me."

"No, something's different about him." Yuri says. "The Karol I knew before would've been peeing his pants or running for his life if something like that happened."

"Oh... now that you mention it, I think you're right." Rita blinks. Lloyd shrugs, and they follow Karol down the path.

"Wah!" Raven shouted from the back of their group. "Bugs, a giant swarm of them! Watch out!" While Rita glanced about, Estelle looking up and Yuri and Lloyd remained impassive because they couldn't hear any of the creatures, Karol's reaction was simply the opposite.

"Waaah!" Karol's axe was back in the air. "Stay away, stay away...!" Rita turns about and sprays something in Raven's face.

"Blech!" Raven recoils. "Hey! Wh-wh-what did you do that for..." He blinked, and then covered his eyes. "Agh, my eyes..."

"I was just giving you a little something to keep away the giant swarms of bugs!" Rita says sharply.

"Ah, I don't believe it..." Karol lowered his axe, realizing he'd been had by the archer, who was hacking and coughing.

"...I thought I was gonna die!" Raven complains, his eyes irritated.

"Karol... You're really afraid of bugs, aren't you?" Estelle asks.

"Wh-who, me?" Karol looks this way and that. "N-not at all!"

"It's okay Karol." Rita says, heading closer. "You don't have to pretend." She still held her canister. "Here, take this." Rita hands her canister to Karol. "Aspio-brand insect spray, the best to keep the bugs away!" Karol holds it awkwardly.

"Oh, uh... Y-you don't mind...?" He seemed to think his fear of bugs was a horrible, horrible flaw and that they should all shun him for it.

"Not at all." Rita shrugs.

"I know someone who's afraid of water when it comes in more than a bathtub full." Lloyd shrugs. "Kinda sucks when you need to get to an island, and she's your healer."

"Just make sure not to spray it near any people." Rita says. "It can sting!"

"So I'm not a person anymore, am I..." Raven slouches dejectedly. "Yeesh..." No one bother responding to that.

"Come on, let's go." Riga says. Raven sighed, still scrubbing at his eyes, but continue they did. Over trees, under trees, around trees, large bugs and plant monsters abound and ready to be taken down. They eventually reached a large tree, with a glow inside like it was afire. Rita approached it.

"This is the same phenomenon we saw at Heliord." Rita announces, watching it from afar this time. "The Aer is weaker than it was there, but there's no mistaking it..." Lloyd spun about, his two blades in his hands as he looked about, already ready to lunge in one direction or another to attack. A moment after Lloyd had moved, a large scorpion like monster dropped down.

"That monster looks just like the ones that attacked Dahngrest!" Estelle recognizes it.

"Here it comes!" Yuri announces, flicking his sheath away.

"What's up with this forest?" Raven whines, pulling his bow to ready position while Yuri, Repede, and Lloyd darted for the creature. Its eyes were both on the standard point, on the body, and on the tail. Karol made a smothered whimper, and then straightened and started in as well.

"I can't believe there's a place like this **in** the forest." Yuri notes, slashing as he ran under the large bug, trying to cut its legs out from under it. He discovered quickly that they were armored, and had scythes ready to uncurl and slash at him.

"Is there anyway to quiet the monsters?" Estelle asks, fishing in her pockets for a Magic Lens. "Gigalarva! Fire, Light, Dark! Don't use Earth, Wind, Water!"

"These guys aren't likely just to lie down because we don't want to fight." Lloyd says, grimacing at Vorpal Blade but striking with both of his swords anyway.

"It's strike first before they strike us." Yuri says, jumping back from a flip-blade strike of the Gigalarva's legs. A fire ball streaks over his head to distract the bug from taking another chunk out of him, or Karol, whose axe was smashing a bit more than cutting.

"So it's a little tough." Raven shrugs, firing arrows at the creature. "Let's just get it over with."

"I hope we only have to kill this one." Rita says, glowing red with another fire spell.

"Stay sharp." Yuri commands.

"We'll lose our lives if we aren't careful." Estelle was either continuing Yuri's command, or commenting on 'they already knew that'.

"Lloyd, you're not helping with that Ice weapon!" Rita shouts, watching the twin-blade attack with both blades.

"I thought it might work!" Lloyd calls, retreating from a leg-slash. "Fire, ice, fire, ice. The hot-then-cold-then-hot might do something."

"Other than piss it off?" Karol wails, getting knocked back by the bug jumping up and down like a child in tantrum.

"... Works on metal!" Lloyd darted back to stand before Rita and Estelle, Raven standing in a mid-line position where he could use the bladed bow as a close range weapon as well as fire arrows – many of which were aimed to the ground and exploded when the Gigalarva moved too close to them. "What about Lightning?" the twin-blade shouts as Yuri darts about under it, Repede Light Spearing away and Raven shooting.

"What's Lightning made of?" Rita shouts like Lloyd should already know the answer to these things as he put his ice blade away.

"_Fire_," and with the word Lloyd cast a Fireball, the trio of red-ish flames striking haphazardly about the large bug, exploding upon impact with far more than Rita's. "And a bit of wind, I guess. Comes from Weather, eh? I'd say more Light, but that's the visible-part, right?" Raven, Repede, and Karol yelped, although Raven's was a bit overdramatic, and Karol's was almost a high-pitched scream as the large bug swung its tail about in a circle and knocked them all back, Yuri remaining silent but for a grunt when he fumbled catching himself before he hit the ground. "Ah, screw it." Lloyd drawls it, throwing his right hand up again, but this time with a corona of violet sparks. "_Sparks!_ Thunder Blade!" the magic created a cloud in the sky from which a violet-white blade crashed into the beast and sent out shockwaves of lightning. And then started giggling, covering his mouth with a fleeting look of confusion and mild horror.

"What's with him?" Raven asks, firing off arrow after arrow – Lloyd's strike had cracked the carapace of the Gigalarva while Repede dashed up with his dagger in jaws.

"He's high." Yuri notes with irritation, watching as the brunette laughed himself to his knees. "His version of Aer Sickness, I guess. Pay attention to the bug. He's not... going to be much help."

"I... can help!" Lloyd protests. Estelle blinks as he sort of forced himself up and... crackled. "_Fangs of the earth, chew!_" Rita gave him an irritated look as both earthen and violet lights crackling about him. "_Earth Bite!_" Rita's eyebrows shot into her hair as the spell runes flickered into place about Lloyd before he doubled over laughing again.

"Move back!" the mage shouts, casting her Fire Ball again and glaring at the brunette male as he laughed himself out of air. Yuri, Repede, and Karol did as the mage ordered as a ball of sparks – bright and violet and flashing into bright white formed. The Gigalarva made some sort of screaming noise as it was caught partially by the ball and electrocuted, before the earth rumbled and created a dome over it. It continued screaming, while Rita gave Lloyd annoyed looks, Raven looked a bit apprehensive, and Yuri just as annoyed, which means that he has to be quite annoyed because he was actually showing it.

"It's not weak against earth!" Rita snaps. If it wasn't for the fact that the spell had released the large bug creature she would have hit him with her book rather than start another Fire Ball to cast upon the now freed, furious, injured, and rather filthy Gigalarva.

"Fine... I'll just use... something else!" Lloyd gasped out between spurts of laughter, clutching at his chest as he kept to the ground. He started sparking with white and violet, at the same time, so Yuri went with the simple answer.

"Sorry for the headache." Yuri thumps Lloyd on the head, knocking the brunette's head against the ground hard enough to make him bounce a little. Raven winced as he shot off arrows from a bit away to keep the Gigalarva from attacking their little cluster, Repede dashing back in with a bark. Lloyd's expression flitted for a second to a rather childish pout before slacking into unconsciousness. "Rita, keep right here. Estelle, don't heal him yet, but keep ready too. Karol, let's gets back to beating this thing down! Old man, keep shooting!"

"Aye, aye!" Raven shouts, doing just that from near the small pond. Karol gulped, took a look at Lloyd and his impromptu nap, then ran closer to the furious, but obviously staggering bug.

"Punishing Smash!" Karol yelps it rather than shouts it, Repede finishing a Sonic Return through one of the legs, and the beast crumpled.

"The trees, the monsters, it's got to be the Aer that's causing this." Rita says, stepping over Lloyd to head back to the glowing tree.

"There's more of them!" Karol wails, clutching his axe. Estelle had Lloyd by an arm, holding his blade of flame and wincing as it flamed, licking about her hand and the guard. She deposited him and sheathed the blade, putting her back toward Yuri and Raven, Rita and Karol.

"Ah, so this is the end, huh?" Raven bemoans, back to back with Yuri as more of the bugs surrounded them. "Farewell, all my dear fans the world over." Lloyd groaned, holding his head and making some sort annoyed amused pained noise.

"I'll make sure your gravestone reads 'Here lies the world's biggest sap'." Yuri says, eyeing the beasts that so far had done nothing more than force them into a group.

"You're supposed ta say stuff like, 'We can make it through this together'." Raven retorts, grimacing back over his shoulder. Lloyd was giggling weakly while holding his head.

"Stay down, giggles." Yuri says, nudging him over with a foot. Lloyd was too busy laughing to retort, or do anything much beyond watch as a man in dark red and dark gray, although completely different than Lloyd's dark red and dark gray, dropped from higher up on the great tree. It was dark red pants and ruffled shirt under a dark gray coat with gold ornaments, and his hair fell loosely wavy about his hips. Or a bit below, but he was moving, his blade a reddish-gray deal without a center, appearing to simply one of those slightly curved double-bladed swords with the large flat part missing, and shroud in a spiral of red mist. He waved it slightly, and then held it with both hands, a seal of six marks forming about him, then a golden tornado. Lloyd stopped giggling, choking off, his eyes wide as the white haired man lifted the blade. Abruptly, all the monsters packed up and left, scurrying off into the forest.

"Who is he...?" Estelle wonders.

"Duke..." Raven greets him, although not jovially, or cheerily, but rather seriously. The man, now identified as Duke, turns and surveys them, blinking once as his crimson eyes passed Lloyd, who was back to giggle-fitting. After looking over their group, he turns and starts off.

"Wait!" Rita demands. Duke pauses, but says nothing, turning back around. "What is that sword?!" Rita snaps. "Let me see!" Duke says nothing, still, and Rita just runs over and bends to study it. There was one point of more gray mist than the rest of it, up a bit closer to the hilt. "How did you do that back there? You like, sliced through the Aer but... but that's impossible..." Rita more or less mutters to herself.

"What good would that knowledge do you?" The rather feminine man had a surprisingly deep voice.

"Well..." Rita almost seemed taken aback by the question. "I mean..." She frowns. "With something like that, we might be able to stop the Blastia from going berserk... We saw that happen to a Blastia. The Aer was out of control." Rita's eyes flicked off to one side in thought. "We couldn't do anything..."

"This was only a distortion." Duke says flatly. "It is a natural occurrence."

"...Distortion?" Rita questions.

"Knew... a spell like that..." Lloyd chokes out about his giggles. Yuri nudges him in the ribs with a foot, which seems to be ticklish, as he falls further into giggles. Yuri rolls his eyes.

"Um, thank you so much for helping us." Estelle bows slightly to Duke.

"Do not go near the Aer krene." Duke says to her.

"Huh...?" Estelle blinks.

"What do you mean, Aer krene?" Rita asks, then glances back at the glowing tree. "This place?"

"Aer krene are the springs from which all the Aer in the world comes." Duke states.

"Springs of Aer..." Rita muses, watching the glowing part of the tree.

"Who are you...?" Yuri asks. "This isn't the kind of place you just go for a walk."

"Raven said he's a duke." Lloyd giggles.

"Shut up, giggles." Yuri says flatly. Duke says nothing, although he watched Lloyd for a second while the twin-blade giggled. "We would've been dead without your help, though. Thanks." Duke watched them for a second or two more, as if searching for signs that they'd begin speaking again, decided they weren't going to, and walked off.

"...That power..." Rita muses. "Could it be the Rizomata Formula?" Rita turned back about. "I can't tell anything from checking things out here. I have to see some others." She frowned at Lloyd as he giggled into his hand. He actually looked like he was trying not to giggle quite so loudly.

"Hey, didn't that guy earlier say these were all over the world?" Karol asks.

"Yeah, he did." Raven still hadn't recovered his cheer. Maybe Lloyd was stealing it all.

"We won't know anything solid until we find them and study them." Rita says.

"So I guess we're finished looking into things here?" Estelle sort of asks. Yuri glances at Lloyd.

"I think we might need to move, then wait a bit for Giggles to stop giggling." Yuri nudges him with his foot. "Then, once he's... sober, again, let's head back to Dahngrest and meet with the Don." Lloyd simply giggles, clasping his hand over his mouth and squeezing his eyes shut. So he's more or less dragged to the next clearing over.

"Whad'ya mean, sober?" Raven says, eyeing Lloyd as Yuri sort of deposits him.

"Tea's good." Lloyd mutters, giggling. Raven's eyebrows went up and he crouched next to Lloyd, poking him in the side.

"Should be any minute now." Yuri drawls, watching Lloyd.

"Any minute 'till what?" Raven blinks up.

"Ever had chocolate tea? I think that'd be gre-" in the middle of the word great and a giggle, Lloyd abruptly turned green. "Gunna be sick."

"Not on me!" Raven quickly got up and back while Lloyd rolled over and made for one of the glowing things behind them. He used it's white fence-like shell to hold himself up while he retched. Estelle turned and headed over to try to sooth him while he got rid of whatever was in his stomach.

"That's one interesting reaction to too much Aer." Rita frowns at him.

"You didn't notice in Heliord?" Yuri asks, sort of absently watching.

"I was a bit busy with the Blastia." Rita reminds him.

"So a lot of Aer makes him... high?" Raven muses.

"The last time, yes, the time before that, he was an ass." Yuri shrugs.

"Yuri, that's mean." Estelle points out.

"Now that you mention it, he did get sick on the way out of Capua Nor." Rita mutters. "He's definitely got a weird reaction."

"Can't we just move on?" Lloyd asked a little sourly, half-held up by Estelle. He was half covering his face with a hand and watching them from behind his fingers. "All I need is sleep." Estelle blinked once or twice, hesitantly letting the man go as he stumbled forward on his own feet, but once again, he was holding himself differently. He eyed Raven quietly, then the rest of them. "Heading back now?" His tones, inflections changed again, as if he wasn't speaking his first language anymore, but that fluid had been his first or some other had been.

"... Yeah." Yuri watched him, but Lloyd didn't take his hand from his face, although he was watched back. Slowly, Lloyd straightened back into his usual stance, but kept his hand over his face. "Let's get back to Dahngrest."

It was a while of quiet walking – the monsters seemed to have started to die down after that Duke had done his thing with the sword.

"Anomalous Aer conditions result in Blastia going out of control, which in turn leads to monsters turning vicious..." Rita muses aloud. "If this is related to the 'distortion' he was talking about, then it might not be only this forest that's affected."

"You sure mumble to yaself a lot, don't ya?" Raven says, watching the auburn mage. The ground started to quaking with the force of a multitude of feet, or a minor earthquake.

"Ack, what?!" Karol flails his arms about to keep balance. "Another monster attack?" there was a large swarm of monsters, but they looked to be simply returning. Rita, Yuri, Estelle and Lloyd all crouched as the swarm drew near.

"Karol, keep your head down!" Yuri hisses.

"This many, you don't want to attract them." Lloyd points out. The stampede continued for quite some time, during which Lloyd shoved a foot against the back of Karol's knees and more or less forced him to crouch with them. Eventually, the monster swarm died down to a trickle, then no more came.

"It's... It's them..." Estelle says after standing and dusting her dress off.

"Don...!" Karol recognizes, while Lloyd watched silently, his hand back over his face. The large man was kneeling, his blade stabbed into the ground.

"...You all do something?" Raven stayed firmly in the bush he'd been in the entire monster swarm, and Lloyd put Yuri and Estelle between him and the Don.

"Do something?" Yuri looked at his weapon, and glanced about to see if any of the remains of monsters when they'd come in. "What do you mean?"

"Those savage monsters turned docile as pups and ran off!" The Don stands again. "What did you do?"

"... Yuri, it must be because we stopped the flow of the Aer..." Estelle says, looking hopeful.

"You mean the guy with the sword stopped the Aer." Lloyd points out.

"The monsters turned tame because we stopped the runaway Aer!" Karol cheers. Lloyd rubs his forehead.

"That Duke man with the glowing sword." He repeats, still almost sourly.

"Runaway Aer?" the Don studied them. "Hmmm..."

"Hey, old man." Rita caught his thoughtful study. "Do you know something!?"

"Well my old friend, Belius, used to say something about it." Don said, sort of dismissively.

"... So it's true that Don and Belius are friends..." Karol whispered.

"Who is Belius?" Rita asked, annoyed at being out of the loop.

"The Duce who rules the coliseum of Nordopolica." Karol explained for her.

"Nordopolica..." Rita tilted her head in thought.

"And what's with that runaway Aer?" Don asked, flipping the subject back about. Before anyone else could comment, Karol headed closer.

"It was really amazing!" He cheered enthusiastically. "More and more really strong monsters kept on coming, but we—"

"Boy, those are the sort of things you keep to yourself." The Don cut him off.

"What...?" Karol blinked.

"You don't do deeds like that so other people will notice." The Don explained. "You do them so that you can protect your town and your friends."

"If you have to do crazy deeds to get attention, you probably don't deserve it." Lloyd muttered, scowling at his feet.

"I'm sorry..." Karol looks down.

"Who put the nettles in your pants, Mr. Grouch?" Rita scowled at Lloyd, who blandly watched her with half-closed eyes. Lloyd decided not to answer her. Estelle had hurried past the Don.

"Excuse me, could I see him for a moment?" Estelle waited carefully next to a man who was more or less held up by one of his fellows.

"What?" The Don turned and watched as Estelle kneeled, her golden Arte seal spreading under her.

"Ohhh..." The man blinked more aware. "You can use Healing Artes... Thank you."

"...Hmmm?" The Don turned away, his eyes flicking over the group and then finding the one in the shrubbery yet. "Ain't that Raven over there?" Raven shifted a bit. "Quit hidin', you!" Raven made a slight noise of perhaps irritation, and left the protection of the shrubbery. "Our man ain't givin' you trouble, is he?" Don asked the party as Raven walked to the Don's right side.

"Whaddaya mean, 'trouble?' The reason the monsters got tame was our doing, mine especially!" Raven protested.

"Huh?!" Karol blinked in surprise. "Raven's a member of Altosk?!"

"Somehow that seems to be the case." Yuri drawled.

"... He reminds me of someone." Lloyd said slowly, eyes narrowed on Raven.

"Don't know him, never heard of him, ain't related to him-" Raven said quickly, ignoring the looks he was getting from Don and the other party members.

"Zelos Wilder." Lloyd said cheerfully, blinking once or twice and quickly looking about.

"... Who?" Raven asks. The Don knocked Raven in the back with the hilt of his katana. "Ouch, gramps, cut that out!"

"Shut up, you!" the Don snapped at Raven, but he returned his hand to its blade by his side. Raven remained like he would flee back shortly, but Yuri crossed in front of the archer.

"Don Whitehorse." Yuri said it casually enough to the taller and far elder male.

"What is it?" Don asked, voice lower than the yell but still rather loud.

"I know we've only just met, but I have something I need to talk to you about." Before Yuri could continue, another Altosk Guildsman approached.

"Don, sorry to interrupt." He was a bit out of breath, but only paused long enough to say that before whispering something to Don's beard, on account of being that much shorter. Lloyd's expression became a bit puzzled.

"Ah, I see." The Don said as the guildsman took a few paces back. "All right you dogs!" The Don bellowed. "Time to head out!" The Altosk Guild moved out of the forest. "Sorry 'bout this, but something's come up." The Don said in a bit more comfortable level of voice. "We've gotta return to Dahngrest. If ya come by the Union you'll have my ear first chance I get. Hope that's okay."

"If I have your word, that's fine by me." Yuri said, shrugging a bit.

"Hmph, you're not nervous at all to talk to me." Don eyes Yuri, then the rest. Lloyd tried to pretend he wasn't paying attention. "You all would make a good addition to our guild." The Don turned and followed his men, and a few seconds after he'd left sight, Yuri walked, spearheading their little group until it was level with Estelle.

"Guild, huh." Yuri muttered.

"We're going to make one, right?" Karol asked hopefully.

"We'll see." Yuri glanced back at him.

"So, what'd'ya think?" Raven asked, glancing about. "Y'all finally get a taste of how awesome I am?"

"Definitely Wilder." Lloyd muttered, watching Raven with unreadable look, but it wasn't completely negative.

"I sure** didn't** notice you being too awesome out there!" Karol snapped.

"Always so quick to criticize!" Raven bemoaned fate.

"All right, I'd like to go back to Dahngrest to meet with the Don and keep looking for Barbos." Yuri said, looking back at them. Estelle blinked then looked back at thinking Rita.

"Rita, once Yuri's done with his business, we should go back to report..." the princess trailed off as Rita didn't seem to be paying attention. So the pinkette walked closer. "Rita?"

"N-no, it's nothing." Rita snapped back to reality. "Come on, let's go back."

"Sounds good." Lloyd shrugged.

"Who's 'Zelos Wilder'?" Raven asked, watching the brunette man.

"A friend." Lloyd shrugged again, and started out of the forest.

"How do I remind ya of him?" Raven wanted to know, so he caught up to Lloyd, and Yuri and the rest simply followed.

"You're rather obnoxious, you're dramatic, and you can't seem to keep a civil tongue in your head." Lloyd said, smirking at Raven.

"That's harsh..." Raven whined.

"And you whine, and you protest small things while bearing through them, and you pick on the mage." Lloyd continued mercilessly.

"... Was he an archer?" Karol asked.

"Nope. Magic Swordsman. He used a handful of low level Artes and looked like he was dancing while he fought. He might still..." Lloyd grimaced here, hands in his pockets but eyes watching for monsters. "But I haven't seen him in years."

* * *

Changing tenses, but I'm not going to go back and touch up older chapters.


	13. Union

The Altosk guard didn't do more than watch them enter the building behind him this time. The large building met them with a large hall, colored in orange-earthen tones, two statues of armor standing at the sides and a brazier keeping the room warm under a chandelier of glass in earthen and cream tones. Of the three doors visible, two were guarded, and the third was a far larger red-brown door on the other side of the hall. Group-think had that door as the one they wanted, as the door to where the Don was likely, and so that was the door they all walked to. Raven and Yuri led, Repede between them and Estelle and Lloyd behind them. Karol and Rita stood in the back, and before the Don, stood a rather familiar blond knight in blue.

"So you've come back, have ya?" The Don sat comfortably upon a brown chair. Flynn noticed them behind him due to the Don's words, and looked back.

"...Yuri." Flynn blinked in surprise. Raven eyed Flynn for a second before walking past the imperial.

"What, you two know each other?" Don asks, and Raven takes his place at the Don's left side.

"Yes, we're old friends..." Flynn turned back and stood at attention before Don, although his tone was a little... wistful.

"Ya don't say." Don seemed to read that Flynn wasn't quite sure of that now. Flynn recovered.

"I see you know Yuri as well." Yuri's expression gave no hint of what he thought about being talked about like he wasn't there.

"We crossed paths during the assault on the city." The Don says, explanation and dismissal from topic. "Now then, what business did ya have?"

"Uhh.." Flynn looked down a little and glanced back, a little confused. Yuri walked up to a little behind Flynn's level, flanking him.

"We came to ask you about a man named Barbos of the Blood Alliance." Yuri explained. Flynn glanced at him, and Yuri continued. "It looks like he's the one behind the recent string of stolen Blastia cores." Flynn's expression mixed anger and something else, as he looked down again.

"I see, so Barbos is tied up in your problem as well." Flynn said. Yuri's eyebrows shifted a fraction up while Lloyd's expression turned thoughtful.

"... You have a problem with him, too?" Yuri asked. Flynn nodded, turned away from Yuri and straightened his stance again to face The Don.

"We have come to ask that the Union relinquish all ties with the Blood Alliance." Flynn said formally. "Other guilds have begun to follow Barbos' example, abusing Blastia in other areas and disrupting the order of society. If we can count on your assistance, I feel that together we should move to put an end to the Blood Alliance." The don looked thoughtful for a second before dropping his fist from his chin.

"...Barbos. He's been testing the limits of my patience lately." Don said. "Looks like it's time to remind that brute how a proper guild behaves." The smile he gave for all of a handful of seconds was fierce.

"A clash between the guilds and the empire was avoided the other day, largely due to your intervention." Flynn continued, gaining hope from the Don's words. "However, if Barbos is left unattended, the relations between our two states may yet be torn apart."

"That's not gonna be fun for anybody." Don muttered. Lloyd frowned as he followed the same thought path, and obviously didn't like where it ended.

"The time for stopping Barbos is now." Flynn says firmly.

"Since we'd be cooperatin' with ya, I assume we'd be on equal standing with the empire in this." Yuri's, or Estelle's, depending on how someone viewed things, group had little choice but to watch Flynn and the Don hammer out things.

"Yes, sir." Flynn replied.

"Humph. If that's the case, a united front with the empire might not be such a bad idea." Don said.

"Then..." Flynn's voice was hope filled.

"Yeah, we'll deal with this together." Don glanced over his shoulder to one of his Altosk Guildsmen. "Hey. Send a message to Belius. Tell Belius that Nordopolica's gonna help us." The man nodded and ran past them as the party carefully split to avoid slowing him.

"Man, this is serious..." Karol whispered. Rita nodded her head at Flynn, who fell into a kneel before the Don.

"I've brought a letter from his Highness Ioder." Flynn announced. He stood and backed off, while the Don opened and looked.

"A secret note from the imperial candidate, huh?" He started out amused, before his expression became unreadable. He broke Raven's lazy-yet-almost-glare-like study of them by shoving the letter in his face. "Read it aloud." All amusement was gone and Raven took the letter.

"If Don Whitehorse is taken out of the picture," Raven's words made Flynn look up in surprise. "We are willing to overlook the Union's responsibility in the Barbos affair."

"What...?!" Flynn looked startled, and horrified, and had every right to both. The Don laughed loudly, and Raven returned to his silent study.

"Don't make me laugh!" he growled it. Raven handed Flynn the letter back, and the knight read it with trembling arms. Lloyd stared at the floor, arms crossed and eyes flicking to the right every so often as he thought. Estelle watched Yuri for a moment, as Yuri watched Flynn, before the princess's attention went back to the knight.

"What... what is this?" Flynn announced his disbelief of the letters before him.

"Looks like you and the young master see things a bit differently." The Don pointed out.

"There must be some mistake! Master Ioder would never say such a thing." Flynn protested.

"Show our guest here to his own private suite!" Don ordered, and two of the remaining men behind him moved for Flynn.

"Don Whitehorse, please listen to me! This is some sort of trap!" Flynn protested, but he doesn't move.

"Don't worry." Lloyd finally said something, his brown-red eyes hard on the Don. "The guilds don't believe in shooting the messenger of bad news." There was a feeling of fear, that 'predator is here, you should run, and run fast' feeling that sort of said 'or you better not...' before Lloyd frowned and it went away. The Don gave Lloyd a look, which Lloyd returned, and Yuri began putting pieces together as he looked between them. Flynn was flanked and the two guards waited for the Don's slow nod before escorting him past Yuri's ragtag friends, leaving one blonde male behind Raven and the Don other than them.

"Flynn...!" Estelle made to intercept, but Yuri stepped half in front of her. The guards left with Flynn. "Why would you...?"

"Hang on." Yuri instructs quietly. "If we screw up, it'll only make things worse for Flynn." Estelle looked down, and clasped her hands before her.

"All-out war with the Empire!" The Don shouted, standing. "We'll take everything we've got and march on the Imperial Capital!" Lloyd hissed, low, his eyes narrowing before they met the Don's. there was a moment where they stared at each other. "Try and make a fool out of me?! I'll tear these little messengers limb from limb!" Lloyd tilted his head back a bit, watching the don as he marched out, Raven and the blonde man flanking him.

"Th-this is bad!" Karol stuttered out after the double doors had shut.

"And it looks like he's forgotten all about talking with us." Rita crosses her arms. Lloyd too crossed his arms, or rather, put one arm across his ribs and the other near his chin, eyes flicking in thought.

"I don't think the Don's in much of a talking mood right now." Yuri pointed out dryly.

"I have to return to the empire and find out what's really going on!" Estelle insisted, her hands forming fists.

"I said hang on." Yuri reminded her. "We should sit still for now and see what happens."

"If you go running now, you'll not do much good." Lloyd said it slowly, like he wasn't fully focusing on them.

"I...I suppose you're right." Estelle murmured.

"Then let's head out." Lloyd hadn't dropped the hand that was near his chin, nor the other that that elbow rested on. Scattered nods and Yuri picked up the lead because Lloyd seemed content to stand there in thought despite his use of 'let's'. They headed out through the hall both still and busier, a tension to the air that had nothing to do with the quietly moving guildsmen. Lloyd's hand dropped from his chin to his pockets sometime near the middle of the room, and then they were outside. Once outside, and at the edge of the square, Lloyd paused, and his eyes went wide.

"Crap!" He patted himself down, and then reached inside his coat. "Oh, crap, I dropped my Bodhi Blastia!"

"How could you drop something as important as that?!" Rita turned on him in fury. The twin-blade held a leather cord up for her inspection. It was worn, faded, and broken.

"I'd been meaning to replace it, and it must have broke, and now I've dropped my Blastia." Lloyd explained. "I'm pretty sure it's in the Union. I'll be right back!" Before anyone else could say anything, Lloyd had turned and darted off.

"Take better care of your Blastia!" Rita screamed after him, before turning around and continuing in a huff. Yuri thoughtfully followed for a moment, before he noticed something off.

"...Huh? That's strange." Indeed, his left pocket was lighter.

"What's the matter, Yuri?" Karol blinked up at him.

"... My wallet's gone." And he could even turn his pocket out and prove it. Much better than planned. "I must have dropped it somewhere." Rita stared at him.

"At a time like this?!" Karol moaned.

"What's with swordsmen and being klutz's with their items?!" Rita demanded angrily.

"Maybe it fell out of my pocket at the Don's place? I'm going to go look. You wait here." Yuri glanced across them. "Or go on, I can catch up."

"O-okay." Karol said, then frowns a little. "Don't take too long!" And so the rest parted from Yuri. Yuri watched as Repede gave him a knowing look, before turning back to the Union. "All righty. Now to go see how Flynn's holding up... and get my wallet back." He had a vague feeling he knew who had gotten their hands on it.

"Yuri?" Flynn asked as soft footfalls reached him down the stairs.

"Nope, sorry." He heard the lock clicking, a little more than it should, and then it opened. The voice was familiar, vaguely, and so Flynn turned. Kratos, the mercenary who had joined with Yuri's group, grinned at him. "Hiya."

"You're going to get in trouble with the Guilds, Kratos." Flynn said. "You shouldn't do this."

"I've got two things, maybe three things, to say." Kratos pulled the door open and sat down on the horrible bunk. "First, my name's Lloyd, sorry for lying, I really wanted to introduce myself that way and it was great fun pretending to be my dad, but also really awkward. Lloyd Aurion-icing." Flynn blinked, and Lloyd blinked, frowning for a bit. "No, sorry, tongue slipped. Had cake on the mind. Aurion-**Irving**_._" The brunette twin-blade offered Flynn a red-gloved hand. "Crazy for hire."

"What sort of crazy?" Flynn couldn't help ask as he hesitantly shook the man's hand.

"I talk to a voice in my head. That sort." The man didn't look that insane, just oddly cheerful. "Now, I think you have something you need to do." Flynn's handshake was turned against him as Lloyd more or less pulled him to his feet by his arm. He thought he heard his armor creak before Lloyd's eyes flitted down and the sound stopped. "A war to stop." Flynn opened his mouth to say something again, but Lloyd cut him off. "**People**to **save**." Lloyd's voice insisted that he knew that was what Flynn wanted, and his brown-red eyes caught the light in the red flecks.

"If I do that, you have to stay here." Flynn admitted grudgingly.

"Oi, Lloyd, give me back my wallet." Yuri made it down the stairs without either of the other two noticing, although the way Lloyd grinned and simply tossed the wallet at the raven haired swordsman said he knew he'd be coming.

"You stole Yuri's wallet?" Flynn stared at Lloyd, as he grinned again.

"Yep. And I'm fine with that." Lloyd said, sitting down on the bunk again. "This'd be the third cell I've been in. And the second with a bed!" He looked too gleeful for that comment, then he spotted the partial wall. "And the first with a toilet!"

"I vote we ignore him for now." Yuri told Flynn. "What's up with that letter?"

"Red eyes." Flynn ignored Lloyd's muttering of how this was the second cell with an actual door. "They attacked after you left." He couldn't help his eyes from straying to the brunette occasionally.

"You don't make mistakes like that." Yuri noted. "Was it one of your people?"

"Doesn't matter, I'm responsible." Flynn said stubbornly.

"So what are you doing here still? Go get the real one's back." Yuri stepped aside so Flynn could exit the cell. The moment the knight did so, Lloyd spun and shut the bars behind him, letting the lock click. Flynn stared at him in exasperation.

"You don't have to do this. If I don't make it back, you'll have to die in my place." Flynn protested the actions of the twin-blade even as Yuri frowned at him.

"I'm not going to die so easily, trust me." Lloyd's expression maintained unreadable as he said that, even before he hooked his arms about a pair of bars and leaned onto them, grinning at the two on the other side. "I'm going to trust that you come back in time before they even get the idea of coming and chopping my head off. Besides, if you don't come back in time, they'll have a war on their hands, and I can open this lock up and be off before they notice me." Lloyd's grin widened. "Trust me, it's fine."

"Yuri..." Flynn looked between the two.

"So eager to get rid of me?" Yuri rolled his shoulders. "I'll see if I can persuade him to leave."

"It's not going to happen." Lloyd promised with a dark grin, still leaning like a prisoner who was purposefully being troublesome. And he was, more or less. Flynn shook his head, and ran out.

"All right, now open up." Yuri knocked on the door. Lloyd transferred his grin to him, and backed from the bars.

"Not gonna happen. I plan to stay put." Lloyd crossed his arms behind his head and sat firmly on the cot. "... Belts on the bed. That's a new thing too. Do they lock crazy people up or something..?"

"Did being in the Great War really snap you that much?" Yuri asked casually while he worked his picks in the lock. In his peripheral Lloyd had stopped moving, and glanced back, watching him from the corner of his eye. A smile stretched back across his face.

"Who said anything about me being in the war?" Lloyd denied his involvement. Yuri made a noncommittal grunt like noise as he worked his picks.

"You know Alexei, and The Don, at least by the way you reacted to his showing up. You showed knowledge of what he liked in people. You avoid being in the center of either's attention, at least until today. You say to be 35, and you mentioned back in Capua Nor that you have to study people." Yuri finds the door harder than he would have liked. Lloyd simply watched him, still completely still with this strange little 'what are you talking about' smile.

"If you don't want to talk about it, fine with me." Yuri heard a very satisfying click number one.

"A lot of crap happened when I was seventeen. Some good things, some crappy things, some bat-shit-insane things, a lot of dead people. And a second dose when I was twenty, just about the same on all four accounts.. The war didn't cause most of my problems." Lloyd dropped the smile and watched Yuri with mild interest.

"The war was starting then." Yuri got his second click.

"I wasn't anywhere near the war until I was nearly 21."

"You joined in the middle?" The third. Just how complicated was the damn lock?

"... More or less. Didn't want more people to die. Figured helping out could save some..." Lloyd grimaced. "Should have learned from my dad's generation."

"... Oh?" Yuri got the lock undone. Lloyd reached over with a foot, and shut the bars in his face, smirking as Yuri glowered at him.

"Best way to stop a war is to take out any armies involved." Lloyd said as Yuri got his picks back into the lock.

"I never heard of a war like that." Yuri glimpsed the sudden shuttering off of Lloyd's expression.

"It's a long story. And damn unbelievable." Lloyd said, frowning aside. It was a lot easier to open the lock the second time, so Yuri managed to get into the cell before Lloyd's boot could shut it again.

"Great. You can tell me after you get out of the cell." Yuri crossed his arms and looked down at the elder man. Lloyd raised an eyebrow, but didn't budge.

"I told you, I'm not moving." Lloyd leaned against the stone wall after a short glance at it.

"You don't need to be held responsible for my friend." Yuri pointed out.

"And I let him out, so technically, yes, I do."

"That's a technicality."

"And so's this." Lloyd got back up, and shoved Yuri from the cell. Yuri staggered and spun back around, but Lloyd already shut the door.

"... Again?" Yuri managed to get the lock open quickly, and this time, Lloyd physically threw him from the cell. He didn't bother shutting the door, though. "You're cheating." Yuri told him. Lloyd just grinned at him as Yuri stood. "Best two out of three?"

"... Ok." Lloyd watched, and simply threw Yuri back out once he was within reach.

"Three out of five." Yuri demanded upon landing.

"... It's not going to change..." Lloyd promised, and the next two times Lloyd threw Yuri two different ways. Yuri caught himself the second time from the first so Lloyd changed the way he threw him.

"Five out of seven." Yuri said.

"Your bruises." Although Lloyd said that, he flicked out a _First Aid_ and healed anything that Yuri felt aches from. And so Lloyd threw Yuri again.

"Damnit." Yuri grunted, landing on his back. "Didn't land..."

"Ahhh. So that's what you're doing." Lloyd flicked another _First Aid _at him. Yuri tried and failed several times to get past Lloyd, and kept upping the number to keep the game going. It definitely felt like a game – Yuri would get close, Lloyd would throw, Yuri would have to figure out how to land, and then try again. Lloyd changed throws every time Yuri managed to catch himself twice, or every time the swordsman broke his hold, which meant that Yuri learned how to break and land from a good many throws. And every so often, Lloyd'd flick out a _First Aid_, the chill spell making any aches go away.

"... Have you lost your mind, son?" Don Whitehorse watched them as Lloyd threw Yuri, the swordsman catching himself and landing with a twist before he met the wall. The large man watched Yuri, and so Lloyd shut the cell with his boot again.

"What about him?" Yuri indicated Lloyd, dusting himself off a little, and not answering the question.

"I already know his mind's off somewhere else." Don said a little flatly.

"Ha, ha, very funny." Lloyd said, leaning against the wall after sitting on the bed. "Just 'cause I think of weird things doesn't mean I'm batshit."

"It does when you wonder about how Blastia work in the middle of a battle." The Don retorts. "Or in this case, taking the place of someone you barely know in a jail cell." Lloyd gave the Don an annoyed look, then a sly one.

"This from the man who left the guards off said cell. And you didn't even bring any with you." Lloyd smirked, a faintly evil look that didn't entirely suit him.

"I had a special favor ta ask that rookie knight." Don shrugged.

"You mean Flynn?" Yuri leans against the wall outside the cell.

"The rats that plan these sorta stunts usually like ta enjoy their handiwork from somewhere nearby." Don looks at Yuri for a moment, then settles with facing between the two as Lloyd leaned against the bars. Lloyd's smirk became a wide grin.

"You knew! Ah, as ever a good actor!" Lloyd's reaction simply firmed in Yuri's mind that these two knew each other.

"If you knew the letter was a fake, why'd you fire everyone up like that?" Yuri asked.

"If I didn't make a good show of things, whoever's behind all this wouldn't bother ta come watch." Don shrugs. "Besides, we've got a lot of hotheads around here who'd never let me hear the end of it if I didn't raise hell." He frowned then. "Although, I don't know why Lloyd's the one in the cell. I was half expectin' ta find you in there, if the rookie knight had made it out."

"He won't let me in." Yuri shrugged. "You're right about his mind being elsewhere."

"Your cell's actually better that the two others I've been in." Lloyd shrugged. "So, it's a bit more comfy. And the best part is, I wasn't thrown in here."

"He keeps throwing me out." Yuri said pointedly.

"Ah-huh." The Don looked between the two. "That's how it stands. So, if our friend the knight doesn't show up again, I'll be taking Lloyd off your hands."

"Not his life?" Yuri raised his eyebrows.

"Lloyd's a bit too valuable to waste like that." The Don said.

"I'm right here..." Lloyd waved a hand through the bars. "Stop talking about me like I'm not... Even if I am vaguely used to it, it's still not cool." He sounded vaguely whine like as he leaned against the bars. Don rolled his eyes.

"Fine. If the rookie knight doesn't come back, Lloyd, you'll be staying here. I have things you can do for me." The Don turned and headed for the stairs out.

"Tell me one thing." Yuri said, watching the Don over his shoulder. "What make you want to start a guild in the first place?"

"I realized I couldn't protect the things that were important ta me, playin' by the empire's rules." Don said.

"There have to be some things that were easier to protect when you were on the other side, though." Yuri sounded thoughtful. "Even in the Lower Quarter, where I'm from, we still had the barrier to protect us."

"Sure, but were ya happy with just puttin' up with all the things ya didn't like?" Don retorted.

"Well, I..." Yuri trailed off.

"So if the rules the empire sets don't suit ya, you've got two choices. You can do like your friend is, and put everything you've got into changin' the system. Or ya can turn yer back on the empire, and live by the rules ya set fer yerself."

"That's pretty clear cut..." Yuri mused.

"I think there's a third." Lloyd grinned at him, face against the bars. "Try to be as awesome as you can, and change it from the outside as well as in by being infectious."

"I think that's just his insanity speaking." The Don said.

"It runs in the family." Lloyd grinned at him as well. Don turned back about.

"I think yer gunna have ta take responsibility for lettin' my prisoner go."

"Oh, that was me." Lloyd waved his hand out of the bars again.

"You can take him with you." Don nodded at Lloyd, watching Yuri. "The sap who's been puttin' together this little show's gotta be somewhere in this city. I'd been plannin' on askin' yer armor-wearin friend ta hunt 'em down for me, but..."

"So what, you want us to find them?" Yuri asked.

"Your job is ta pay this debt back ta me." The don turned back about. "How ya go about it is up ta you." He paused. "That young lady ya brought with ya is runnin' all over the place helpin' with the injured folks. Yer not the type ta be the only one sittin around twiddlin' his thumbs, right? I already know Lloyd's startin' ta itch to go." Indeed, the twin blade shifted on his cot when Yuri glanced, brown-red eyes on the door.

"... Estelle..." Yuri sighed. "Huh, that sounds like her." The don left them, and Lloyd sprung up, several picks in his fingers as he worked the lock open. "So, when did you take my wallet?" Lloyd wasn't interested in pausing after leaving the cell, looking all bright and excited.

"Before we left the Union." Lloyd shrugged.

"And did you really drop your Bodhi Blastia?" Yuri frowned at his back.

"Purposefully. I broke the leather inside the Union as well. I had been meaning to get a new string for it." Lloyd took stairs two at a time, with the occasional three, so Yuri decided that talking was done. "When did you notice?"

"Shortly after you left. I'd been planning on faking it, but." Lloyd quickly led out of the Union, then to the square where he had parted with the party.

"Out of the way!" An Altosk guildsman bellowed, and Lloyd swerved to the lefts side of the street, Yuri following him and the guildsman passed. "The Don is passing through!"

"Is he really planning on going to war just to lure those rats out of hiding?" Yuri mumbled to himself.

"He better not actually get to the war part." Lloyd scowled at the Union building. Indeed, the Don, with Raven at his left, and a crowd of Altosk guildsmen exited and moved down the street. They gathered other Guildsmen to listen before stopping in the square.

"We'll teach those imperial bastards to look down on us!" Many of the men with him unfurled flags with specific colors and symbols to them, the signs of the guilds.

"Oh, Yuri! Lloyd!" Karol spotted them, and so the two blades-men headed over.

"Have you finished healing the injured yet?" Yuri asked Estelle, while Lloyd rocked on his heels a little and looked about.

"How did you know that?" Estelle blinked.

"The Don." Lloyd shrugged.

"He told me." Yuri agreed. "This is from him – his way of saying thanks."

"But Yuri, things have gotten really bad!" Karol said urgently.

"Yeah, I noticed." It was a bit hard to not notice the war mob behind them.

"No that's not what I mean." Karol insisted.

"What else?" Yuri asked, and Lloyd tilted his head to listen.

"I saw them!" Karol crowed.

"You saw... who?" Yuri asked.

"The Blood Alliance!" Estelle said. "Barbos wasn't with them, but..."

"Rita and Repede are shadowing them now." Karol reported.

"Just what the Don wanted..." Yuri muttered, while Lloyd's expression might have been best described as unholy glee.

"Let's catch up with Rita." Karol turned, and led the way for the east side of town.


	14. War

Karol lead them to a bar.

"In here?" Yuri raised his eyebrows. Rita stood in the street, and Repede sat in the shadows before it, so that more or less had to be the place.

"Yes." Rita said.

"Let's go inside." Estelle offered.

"Sounds like a plan." Lloyd grinned again, striding over to the door and shoving it open. Karol flinched at Lloyd's loud entrance, but the bar was mostly empty and none of the remainder were sober enough to care either way. "Up the stairs." Lloyd said, heading that way with his left hand casually on the blue-white hilt at that side.

"Can you do that thing on will?" Yuri asked, taking point, or maybe just behind point, with Lloyd.

"What thing?" Lloyd denied he knew what Yuri was talking about. Karol opened his mouth to ask, and Lloyd threw up a hand. "Sh." The tall man managed to inch partially up the stairs, head tilted so his left ear was up, eyes half closed.

"What?" Rita asked in a demanding whisper.

"... Barbos..." Lloyd replied as whisper-like. "and... Ragou." His eyes opened again, and he glanced at Karol. "Who's Leviathan's Claw?"

"Another guild." Karol replied.

"So we found them." Yuri's smirk looked distinctly bloodthirsty. He headed up past Lloyd, Repede on his heels, and the rest followed.

"You're one to talk, Ragou." Barbos replied to something the Imperial Magistrate had said, sitting in a chair before a desk. Repede stopped before Yuri and his long tail flicked into the air as his hackles rose and he growled low.

"You!" Rita found it was one thing to hear that the two were in the room, and another to see the men she disliked so.

"It's the world series of villains and you had to take the best seat in the house?" Yuri drawled. Indeed, Barbos was sitting before a window, or perhaps a open wall to a terrace was the better description.

"What fool would dare to heckle my exquisite performance?" Barbos questioned fate, looking bored, before he glanced back over. "Oh ho, if it isn't the little runts I met on the ship."

"You're the one who's been causing all of the recent chaos!" Estelle pointed accusingly at Barbos.

"And what of it? You fools will never manage to capture me." Barbos said. Lloyd rolled his eyes, rocking on his heels. His eyes flicked to the right every so often with a little frown that slowly grew.

"Oh yeah?" Rita asked. "What's your reasoning there?"

"A villain is someone who never considers losing a possibility." Yuri shrugged. "That's why he thinks the way he does."

"If so, then that makes you quite a villain, Yuri." Karol said, amused.

"Yep. I'm nefarious." Yuri agreed.

"Ahhh... but not more so than me, I think." Lloyd said, grinning widely. His eyes were hard, though.

"You've got a big mouth, brat." Barbos left off watching them to look out his large window. It must have been some sort of cue, for a handful of Blood Alliance run from the shadows to surround the group. Yuri flicked his sheath away as Lloyd and Karol readied to draw. "You would dare to oppose me?" Barbos demanded. "I thought I told you before that next time you wouldn't get off so easy." Karol drew his large hammer, Estelle standing with her buckler and sword ready and Repede growled lower as Yuri rested his blade on his shoulder.

"All the better for us to tear things up!" Yuri announced.

"Take them down!" Barbos ordered. Rita flourished her scarf, and Lloyd's wide grin promised death to the man standing before him. The Blood Alliance guildsmen didn't move as Barbos abruptly began laughing. "The fools have started to march!" He got up in glee. "Now that meddlesome Don and the Knights will destroy each other!"

"He did this to destroy the Union and to eliminate the Don...!" Karol repeated what the Blood Alliance guild master had just revealed about his plans.

"If the knights are destroyed, who will protect the empire?" Estelle gasped it. "Ragou, why would you... Oh!" It clicked for her.

"Of course." Rita glanced from Estelle back to the nearest guildsman. "He's going to weaken the Imperial Knights so that the Council can step in and control the Empire."

"Oh my..." Estelle whispered.

"The Knights and the Union going down together... it's just as Flynn said." Yuri muttered.

"Hmph, so what if you know now?" Barbos grumbled, and Estelle darted to the terrace. "No matter what you do, you won't be able to stop the battle!"

"If they start a battle, I'll stop it." Lloyd promised, voice low and eyes hard. Yuri wasn't sure he liked the way Lloyd sounded when he said that. Karol shivered.

"We'll see." Yuri retorted.

"And your existence comes to an end here!" Barbos finally turned to actually look at them. Due to the Dahngrest War Party already being in the field, the town echoed with hoof beats far before any rider was in sight.

"Damn it, he's too late!" Yuri muttered. Estelle stared out the terrace, into the field beyond.

"Flynn...?" She gasped. Lloyd laughed, lunging and drawing both blades into and through the Blood Alliance guildsman before him. Rita lashed out with her scroll, and Yuri slammed his fist into another's nose then brought his sword down. Estelle quickly returned to the group while Barbos growled.

"Ragou, you fool. You didn't keep up your end of the bargain." Barbos snarled. The magistrate cowered with his backside thrust out toward Barbos.

"Don't hurt me...!" he wailed.

"Damn...!" Barbos growled. Another Blood Alliance guildsman raised a gray needle like weapon, balanced on his shoulder.

"Yuri! They're aiming at Flynn!" Estelle yelped. Before the guildsman could do much more than he had, a hammer flew and hit him on the arm, making him yelp and drop the gun. Ragou dropped to the floor.

"Got 'im!" Karol cheered.

"Nice shot, Karol!" Yuri smirked. Lloyd watched the stairs, looking a little puzzled.

"You brats think you can stop me?" Barbos roared, lifting a longer gun. Lloyd whirled as the large man aimed.

"Guardian Field!" Lloyd shouted, crouching. The shot flared into flames over a white barrier that formed as an glowing, intricate white seal under their feet with Lloyd as the center.

"Get out of here." Yuri ordered. "Head for the exit."

Lloyd made a sound that could be best described as "Psh", but Karol and Estelle turned to head down the stairs. Yuri moved forward, and that stopped Estelle.

"Yuri, no, it's too dangerous!" She shouted.

"It should take time for the Aer to recharge, I'll try and stop him before then..." As Rita said this, however, the gun flashed.

"Why didn't ya say so?" Lloyd grinned at Rita, straightening and ending the Arte.

"Now!" Karol yelled.

"You're too late!" Barbos crowed, aiming again.

"No! It charged up too quickly!" Rita froze, but Lloyd jumped back to the wall. A streak of dark and light blue flew in, and knocked Barbos over.

"Wh-what the hell...?" Barbos grunted from the floor.

"Oh, so you're back for more, dragon freak!" Rita screamed at the white armored rider, red glowing seal forming under her.

"Rita, knock it off!" Yuri barked. "Our enemy's over there..!"

"My enemy is this dragon freak!" Rita retorted, but the spell ended.

"Leave it alone for now!" Yuri snapped. Lloyd scowled and started to rush Barbos, but the Guild master had a giant chainsaw sword, and Lloyd stopped himself from running head first into it.

"I'm gonna make you wish you hadn't done that!" Barbos told them, and Yuri's expression flat-lined into irritation. However, instead of attacking him with his chainsaw blade, he raised it into the air and blue whirlwinded about him, lifting the large man from the floor.

"Holy Sylph!" Lloyd yelped.

"What?" Karol recoiled. "He can fly?" Barbos gave them a maniac grin as he ... flew out of the city. The Dragon Rider moved to follow him.

"Ah!" Rita shouted. "Get back here you freak! Think I'm just gonna let you get away?" Rita ran closer, but Yuri beat her to the edge.

"If you're going after him, let me come with you!" Yuri held his sheathed blade already. "We're a little short on wings around here." Lloyd's attention snapped to Yuri and the rider.

"Are you crazy? This jerk's our enemy!" Rita shouted at him.

"Yuri, go on foot!" Lloyd said, frowning. "Unless the rider's a healer, you won't have one, the group's all about balanced!"

"No matter what happens, I've gotta catch that guy." Yuri told Rita, then glanced at Lloyd. "The dragon's the best bet on keeping up with him. I'd lose him on foot." And Yuri looked back at the Rider. "... Come on!" After a moment, the dragon lowered so that Yuri could climb aboard. "Yes! Thanks!" Yuri smirked, and climbed behind the white armored rider.

"Wait!" Karol shouted. "What about us...?"

"There isn't room." Lloyd answered before Yuri could.

"But, what should we...?" Karol asked, lost.

"You guys hold down the fort here!" Yuri shouted back, ignoring Lloyd's splutter. "Keep out of trouble!" He smirked, and the dragon headed out of the city. "And let Flynn know I'm stepping out for a while!"

"Like hell!" Yuri heard Lloyd shout indignantly, his voice nearly swamping Karol's "Damnit Yuri!"

"All right. Karol, find Raven." Lloyd turned from the terrace quickly and then to the stairs.

"Huh?" Karol blinked at the twin-blade. "Why?"

"Raven knows the area a bit better then you do, I think. Older. They headed into the desert, tell him that. Following Barbos. He should come." Lloyd was already on the stairs, and the other three hurriedly followed him as he continued talking. "Estelle, find Flynn, let him know. If you can't find him in twenty minutes, give a message to a knight. Rita, get any supplies we need, healing, food, head after them with Raven and Karol. Meet back in front of here, head into the desert **together**."

"What are you going to do?" Rita demanded, but Estelle blinked, nodded, and headed to the stalls. Outside, the talking and muttering of the Guildspeople was louder. Many were angry at not getting a war, many also relieved at not getting a war. And so they argued.

"Head after them now." Lloyd said, stopping to look about and then at her. "I'll mark the desert, with glass by Fire, so you can follow. Unless it's really obvious, then I won't. I don't think he has a healer, I can be a healer, I'm going to try to head there as soon as possible. I'm fast." Rita didn't get a chance to add onto that, so she stomped, huffed, and headed to follow Estelle as Lloyd ran from the city.

* * *

The flight through the clouds was cold. But the chill was banished by the rush of adrenaline as Yuri noticed that the cloud formation in front of him was completely unnatural, a funnel that was drawing more clouds into it, and completely stationary. The dragon under him rumbled as it hovered for a second, and then the white armored rider turned to glance back at him. Or past him. Yuri glanced back and saw a strange turquoise glow, but the dragon moved before he could do much else. It dived into the center of the swirling clouds, revealing to the riders a tower inside. The dragon opened its mouth and gathered breath, then released a stream fire directly into a mass of gears with a shining Blastia Core to the center. The core crackles, sending off pale green lightnings and the spinning gears stop. Slowly, the swirling clouds dissipate as well, revealing the full length of the tower. The Dragon dived in, and once it was a few feet from the glass like floor, over stilled gears, Yuri jumped down.

* * *

Yaaay. fun things be on their way :D


	15. Tower

"So that Cyclone was his doing." Yuri mutters to himself as he straightens from jumping from dragon back. Barbos walks closer from inside the tower, and Yuri turns to face him. "Here comes trouble." He drawls. Behind him, he could hear the shifting of the dragon's wings as it flew.

"You..." Barbos raises his large chainsaw blade as he tensed with anger. "You've destroyed the Blastia!" Yuri flung his sheath away and caught the blade, but before he got close enough to attack Barbos, fire balls flew over his head and knocked the Dragon Rider from the Dragon. He could still see that strange turquoise spot from the direction of Dahngrest.

"Hey, are you okay?!" Yuri shouts, as the Dragon Rider hit the ground heavily. He traced back the line the fire had taken and spotted a group of Blood Alliance, complete with a Blastia gun. "Bastards...!" Yuri turned and saw that the Dragon Rider stood now, although slumped, and that Barbos turned to face her, if Lloyd was right. The Rider still held her, he'd go with Lloyd's guess for now, lance, so he turns for the group of Blood Alliance. They stood on a stationary gear some feet below, but Yuri jumped anyway. The Guildsman with the gun launched several more fireballs, but Yuri wasn't their target by the wild misses, and so he had a clear slash at the group. They fell, and Yuri turned in time to see Barbos fly down by means of his sword and land on the edge.

"You're next, punk!" Barbos growls, holding that massive blade ready. Above them, the Dragon wheeled, and gave a high cry as it turned away. Yuri watched for a second, catching sight of that turquoise spot again, but turned back to Barbos.

"Come on, we're just getting started." Yuri taunts. Immediately after he said so, a mob of Blood Alliance swarmed out.

"Heh." Barbos gives a short little laugh. "My men won't have any trouble taking care of a brat like you." He raised his chainsaw blade. "Now rip him to pieces!" Barbos ordered. Yuri spun and _Dragon Swarm_'d and _Destruction Field_'d his way through the mob of men, managing to avoid everything fatal often by how thick his light armor was. Yuri quickly ate an Apple Gel and rested his blade on his shoulder.

"Is that all you got?" the dark haired swordsman taunted. Barbos pointed that big old chainsaw blade at Yuri.

"Looks like I'm gonna have to teach you your place!" A flash of light and Yuri ducked as his sword flew from his hand.

"Huh..." He flexed sore fingers. "That's a handy sword you've got." With it still pointed at him, he wasn't going to see if it could knock him from the gear before he could grab his sword. He wasn't that crazy.

"Think you lost because of this sword, huh?" Barbos asks.

"I don't know, what do you think?" Yuri asks back, his eyebrows drifting a little up as he wondered why he should think it was anything but the sword, or perhaps how many of Barbos' screws were loose.

"Yeah, talk it up while you've got the chance. We've got a nice painful death all set up for you." Barbos retorts. While more Blood Alliance cornered him to steer him into the Tower, Yuri caught sight of that turquoise bright spot again. It looked bigger, wider.

Just as Yuri and the dragon-rider Krityan were about to create their break out, the door opened again as two Blood Alliance men threw another in. One that was rather familiar to Yuri despite bruises and cuts decorating his light tanned face.

"... Lloyd? How did you get here?" Yuri pulled the older male back from the doors. "Didn't I tell you guys to hold down the fort?"

"I flew." Lloyd mutters sarcastically. "How else?" He pushed himself up and poked at his face gingerly. "Did you really expect us to stay there?" The indigo haired woman studied Lloyd as he mumbled to himself and healed.

"You're joking, right?" Yuri asks.

"Maybe." Lloyd grins, before it becomes a grimace as he shrugs, and heals himself again. "So, how are we going to get out of here?" Yuri looks at the Krityan, then Lloyd.

"Well, you are a mage..." Yuri muses.

"Ah, Yuri... Remember my spells are not indoor spells..." Lloyd scratched at the side of his head. "I damage things I don't mean to."

"Well, I do have an idea..." Yuri grins slowly.

"Well, if you think it might work, what's the harm in trying it out?" The Krityan woman smiles. "I always say, 'those who can, should'." Lloyd got up, stretching stiffly, watching the dark haired pair amusedly.

"Okay, just go along with me on this." Yuri keeps his grin in place as he works his hands.

"I'll just follow your lead." The Krityan cracked her knuckles.

"Although it's a little nerve wracking working with such a pretty lady and a skilled warrior like you." Yuri says to the Krityan and glancing at Lloyd. Lloyd grins widely.

"Just a moment. I think I need to take these off." Lloyd pulled off his red gloves, then a pair of black gauntlets, which made some nice clanking armored noises as he tucked them into his belts.

".. That's actually a full suit of armor?" Yuri asks, blinking as Lloyd replaced his gloves.

"Yep." Lloyd grins at him. "So make sure only to aim for my face. Wouldn't want to hurt your hands... Not that my head won't."

"Hahaha... Right. Watch out for tin-can here." Yuri makes a vocal mental note, before suddenly punching the Krityan in the face.

"Ah!" she staggers back, then glares at him. Her punch sent Yuri flying into Lloyd.

"Hey, keep me out of this!" Lloyd shouts, socking Yuri back into the Krityan.

"Oi! Don't send me back!" Yuri shouts, but manages to turn this into his favor by adding a punch to him hitting the woman. The brawl continued with Yuri being hit back and forth between the twin-blade and the Krityan woman.

"Oh, that is it!" Yuri shouts, grabbing onto the blue haired woman to fling her into the twin-blade.

"I said, leave me out of this!" Lloyd yelps, catching onto the woman and slinging her back. By now the other prisoners had caught on, and were shouting at each other if not actually mock brawling as well.

"Cut it out!" Yuri shouts, hitting the Krityan.

"You cut it out!" She shouts back, back handing him to Lloyd. Lloyd yelped comically, shoving Yuri back into her. "I've had it up to here with you!" The Krityan snaps, pushing off Yuri to hit Lloyd good in the face. The twin-blade staggered back, before knocking her in the shoulder. She spun about, catching onto Yuri and flinging him into Lloyd. Lloyd socked him in the face for once.

"Oi! I think you broke something!" Yuri's voice was a bit muffled as he covered his mouth with a hand, stumbling back. Lloyd grinned, flicking a healing spell his way.

"I told you to keep me out of this!" Lloyd shouts, grinning wildly as the Krityan socks Yuri again.

"Someone get me away from these psychos!" Yuri shouts as he gets up, noting that Lloyd was replacing his black gauntlets.

"We said to cut it out!" The pair of Blood Alliance guards opened the doors, only to not find the massive brawl, but the lot of people standing with only mild bruises, yelling. Yuri and the Krityan woman turned on the guards with identical smiles of 'thanks for falling for it'. Lloyd slammed his shoulder into one guard and then the prisoners trampled the other. As the lot of them ran out, the three fighters moved to the edge and watched them all go.

"Ta-dah, you're free." The Krityan woman smiles.

"Thanks for your help." Yuri says, grimacing a little as he talked.

"Well... That was fun." Lloyd was rocking on his heels slightly, before blinking at them and casting _First Aid_ once more on both.

"I think I still owe you one more." The blue haired woman approached Yuri.

"...Huh...?" The Krityan reached and slapped Yuri across the face. "Guess I over did it back there..." Yuri blinks. "What about Lloyd?" Yuri asks, rubbing his cheek.

"I tried to not hit too much." Lloyd grins at them. "I'd've broken too many jaws, and then how'd we make enough noise to get them in?"

"That makes us even." The Krityan smiles.

"I'm Yuri." The Krityan raised a hand, and Yuri high-fived her. "Yuri Lowell."

"Lloyd Aurion-Irving." Lloyd gave her a high-five as well. "Aurion if you just want to go for less of a mouthful."

"Judith." The Krityan tilts her head and clasps her arms behind her back.

"Judith...?" Yuri tilts his head the other way. "'Judy' is easier to say."

"Fine by me." Judith turns to their in a neat little triangle. "All right, on to the next objective."

"... I'm missing things again." Lloyd says, frowning. "... What next objective?"

"Next..." Yuri chooses to ignore Lloyd for a moment, as this would explain things. "Well, we could check out that Blastia on the roof. All we have to do is go up."

"What about your other friends? Won't they be waiting for you?" Judith asks, tilting her head.

"They'll get here." Lloyd shrugs. "And that Barbos guy was still here, so..." Yuri blinks at him. "That **is** what you want to do, right?" the brunette grins at Yuri.

"I don't mind taking care of the Blastia first." Yuri says, shrugging.

"Up we go then." The wine eyed woman smiles, before flicking her attention to Lloyd. "Excuse me, but are you a Krityan?" Lloyd blinked at her, tilting his head.

"Are you the dragon-rider?" he asks back. Judith smiles at him.

"You haven't answered my question."

"You didn't answer mine."

"I asked first."

"Touché. Hmmm..." Lloyd tilted his head the other direction, his eyes flicking off to the right. "That depends. Do Kritya live to be a thousand years old on average?" Judith blinks.

"The oldest I've head of is five hundred." She says.

"Ahh..." Lloyd quickly tapped on his fingers obviously working something out while his eyes occasionally flicked to the right then back to his hands. "I'm... an eighth... Krityan?(1)" Lloyd says slowly, looking at his fingers. Judith blinks, before Lloyd smiles. "So, you are the dragon rider?"

"... Yes." Judith shifts, smiling.

"I already asked her, Lloyd." Yuri says, looking about for a way up, because there didn't seem to be one.

"All right." Lloyd put his hands in his pockets. "But how exactly do we plan to go up?"

"Can't you just fly us up, Lloyd?" Yuri asks sarcastically, but wasn't expecting the twin-blade to go a little pale.

"Nah. Don't know about Judith, but you're too heavy." Lloyd's retort was a little slow as he turned around, scratching behind an ear as he too looked about. While Yuri studied him, Judith had wandered off.

"...This is heavy." Judith announces, working on a lever.

"Yeah, just wander off..." Yuri mutters, watching her. "Reminds me of a certain princess."

"A princess?" Judith asks, turning back to them. Lloyd passes her to look at the machines.

"Nevermind." Yuri says a bit quickly. "There's gotta be a way up around here somewhere. Let's see what we can find."

"You two look around." Lloyd says, eyeing the machine. "I think this is it. I'll see if there's any way to make these things work smoother, but you see if there's something else."

"Right. Shout if you got it." Yuri heads off, and Judith watches between the two before following Yuri. There was another set of levers, a glowing spot, and a storage room. Yuri opened the storage room door, and brightened as he spotted weapons.

"Ok, this one's mine..." He shifted other blades in the box, but didn't see the red and gold or blue and silver hilts of Lloyd's blades. Nor were any wrapped and vaguely familiar shaped. "... Can't find Lloyd's though." Judith said nothing from the other side of the room. "Can't find yours?"

"Someone must have just took it." Judith says, a bit sadly.

"Maybe." Yuri picked up a pair of swords that look more or less like they were the same for Lloyd. "Why don't you just pick one here."

"Uhh..." Judith turned back to the spears and lances. "Right."

"..Was that something special for you?" Yuri asks, catching a hint.

"Yes it was." Judith didn't turn back to look at him as she said that, and picks a spear. "Well, this should do for a while. I'll take this."

"Are you fine with that?" Yuri asks.

"I don't think I will find my weapon here, I'll look for it as I go on." Judith says. "Maybe we'll be able to find Lloyd's at the same time."

"All right." Yuri says, shifting his armful of blades. "I'll try looking for it too." Judith nods, and they leave the storage room. So Yuri turned to look at the left, Lloyd still crouched by the levers on the other side. "It looks like we can't go any higher, and we can't go outside, either." Yuri frowned as his hand trembled. "What the? Is the Sorcerer's Ring broken? Did the Aer here do this?" Judith spotted the golden band with the red gem on Yuri's hand, mostly because it was glowing.

"Hey, you're more fashion-conscious than I thought!" Judith exclaims. Yuri glanced at her, then his hand.

"This isn't fashion..." Yuri mutters, then turns about and raises his glowing hand. "You go like this, and..." A green bolt, much like the green of the bright light next to him, flashed out and struck the lever before him.

"It moved." Judith notices the lever had gone up.

"It's powered up..." Yuri studies the ring.

"I'll bet you could move other levers with that, too." Judith eyes the lever.

"You think it's okay?" Yuri asks. "I'm afraid it might blow up or something."

"If it happens, it happens." Judith says placidly. "For now, let's pull that lever over there."

"If something this tiny exploded I guess it wouldn't be too dangerous..." Yuri mutters, noting the change in color of the little gem from red to green.

"Aha!" Lloyd shouted right before they could call out to him, shoving up on the lever with his shoulder under the handle. With a groan and grinding and creaking, the lever moved up. "Got it!" Lloyd cheered as a staircase unfolded to their level.

"Ah, Lloyd, we just got something so we can do that much easier." Yuri waved the hand with the Sorcerer's ring on it, holding the pair of blades out with his other. "Here, couldn't find your two..." Lloyd's left hand had fallen to rest on a familiar blue-steel hilt. "... Where did you find them?" Yuri chucked the two swords he'd picked up into the gap under stairs. Lloyd blinked at the blades, then at his then at Yuri.

"Did you see a spear as well? It's red." Judith asks hopefully.

"Back there, in a box." Lloyd answered the first question. "No, didn't see any spears or lances." He said to Judith. "Sorry."

"It's all right. I'll just keep looking." Judith looks at the stairs. "Going up?" Lloyd makes a small monosyllabic noise of acceptance, and headed up the stairs with his hands on hilts. "...You're pretty strong." Judith suddenly comments to Yuri, while Lloyd looked about. "Can you use an Over Limit, by any chance?"

"Sure, yeah." Yuri shrugged a little. "I've never seen Lloyd use one though."

"Oh, I can use them." Lloyd grinned back. "Just, things die too quickly when I do. So I don't."

"Okay." Judith smiles like she completely understands Lloyd's reason. "Then try this..." Judith hands Yuri a small orb.

"Huh? What's this?" Yuri rolled it about.

"The Limit Duo." Judith explains. "Your battle spirit can allow you to use even more powerful Over Limits."

"Oh yeah?" Yuri eyes the little orb with more appreciation.

"Nice." Lloyd eyes it, before passing them to jump an unsuspecting Blood Alliance Guildsman.

"If your battle spirit is the real thing, that is." Judith smiles.

"So what else can you tell me about these strong Over Limits?" Yuri asks, ignoring the little jab.

"You can produce more power when attacking alone, or they say you can share battle spirit with something else..." Judith says.

"Is that so..." Yuri pocketed the little orb. "I still don't quite get it..."

"Just start using them and feel them out." Lloyd grins back at him. "Usually works well enough."

"Sounds good to me..." Yuri walked over the man Lloyd had recently killed, and tested the door. "Unlocked." Sounds of combat came through the door, with a familiar voice.

"There, that's the last of 'em!" A teen mage shouts. Yuri shoved open the door to find the rest standing in post combat positions, a handful of Blood Alliance on the ground with arrows, horrible burns, or slashes as their downing wounds.

"Huh..." Yuri looks over the lot of them, a little smirk on his face. "Looks like you guys have things under control."

"Yuri!" Estelle notices him, then Lloyd and the Krityan. She runs up to him, and begins to inspect him for any wounds.

"Hey, what gives...?" Yuri stands still and sort of lets her. "Come on, lay off, will ya?"

"Are you okay?!" Estelle demands, still poking and peeking. "Were you hurt?"

"Maybe, but Lloyd can heal too." Yuri reminds her. "You worry too much." Estelle takes a step back. "And I could have sworn that I told you all to stay put for a while..."

"And you thought Lloyd'd run off without us?" Karol demands. "He set us all up to head here! We were worried about you!" Rita raised a fist, and Karol immediately covered his head while Lloyd grinned at Yuri's glance.

"Hey, just for the record, I wasn't worried about him." Rite declares, not hitting Karol on the head.

"Well, I for one was worried sick." Raven groans, slumping.

"Yeah right." Yuri shoots down Raven's worrying. "And when did you just start showing up wherever we go, anyway?"

"It's like this, see?" Raven straightens. "The Don's havin a fit sayin' there's no way he'll let Barbos make a fool outta him, but I'm the one he sends to do his dirty work." Raven explains grumpily. "That, and Lloyd sent Karol a'runnin ta let me know where ya went, and I told the Don, so he sent me." Lloyd grins wider at Yuri's glance.

"What were you guys think you're doing, coming in this way?" Yuri changed the subject a little.

"Well, the front door was locked." Karol shrugged.

"That's not the point..." Yuri mutters. Estelle peeks about Yuri as Judith comes to stand as part of the group. Raven turns and immediately changes a little.

"...A-and who might this lovely Krityan be?" Raven asks, adding on hopefully. "Is she a princess?"

"Layin' it on a little thick there, old man." Rita says, sounding amused.

"This is Judith." Yuri introduces her while Lloyd mutters about 'Zelos clones with hair dye', covering his face with a hand. "We were locked up together, and then Lloyd joined us."

"Hello!" Judith smiles.

"Hi! I'm Karol!" Karol waves.

"I'm Estellise." Estelle introduces herself.

"Rita Mordio." Rita gives her name.

"And I am the Great..." Raven pauses to strike a pose, rubbing his chin a little.

"Old man." Rita finishes for him, while Lloyd face-palmed again, but harder. Raven turned to Rita.

"It's Raven! R-A-V-E-N! Raven!" The archer complains.

"You have to wonder about people who introduce themselves like that." Karol points out.

"Hmmm..." Raven straightens again. "That didn't quite have the 'zing' I was lookin' for."

"That's okay, it had enough... Something." Lloyd muttered from behind his hand.

"I think that'll do for now." Yuri says.

"What an interesting bunch of people." Judith laughs a little.

"Ooohhh. I think she likes me." Raven performs a standing back flip and finishes with a small thumbs up.

"Idiot..." Rita mutters.

"Judith, what were you doing in a place like this?" Estelle asks worriedly.

"I came to have a look at the Blastia." Judith says a little slowly.

"All the way out here? Why?" Rita asks.

"I-" Judith started, but Yuri shrugged and interjected.

"She was captured on a sort of research trip." Yuri says.

"There were a bunch of other people caught too." Lloyd adds onto Yuri's interjection.

"Yeah, the Kritya do like their research." Rita mutters.

"Were you able to locate your Aque Blastia?" Estelle asks Yuri.

"Nope, not this time either." Raven turns back to face in their circle.

"I wonder if it's somewhere here in this tower..." Karol looks up at the gear building.

"We'll just have to ask Barbos about it once we've caught him." Yuri announces.

"Or beat it out of him." Lloyd crossed his arms behind his head.

"Ok, lets go." Rita leads the way. Lloyd followed at level with Karol and Estelle, while Judith followed a little before Yuri and Repede, and Raven paused a few steps from where he had been standing.

"What is it, old man?" Yuri asks.

"Ah, nothing..." Raven scratched under his ponytail. "Just thinking how you could really brag ta your friends if ya lived in a place like this." Yuri made a grunt like noise.

"Repede, come on." The swordsman tells his dog. "I guess you too, old man."

"You guess?" Raven complains. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Up a ladder and into the middle of the tower again, but a level higher where things glowed green. Lloyd spent a few seconds seeing if he could catch any of the lights, before Rita's comment slowed him.

"So you use a spear too." Rita mutters, eyeing the weapon Judith holds.

"Oh, do you know someone who also uses a spear?" Judith asks.

"Eh, well not quite." Rita crosses her arms and frowns. "It just reminds me of some jerk."

"Are you talking about that Dragon Rider?" Karol asks. The unspoken word was 'again'.

"Yeah." Rita blinked, then turned on Yuri. "Hey, don't you have something you need to tell me."

"What? Me?" Yuri glances at her.

"Yes." The mage turns to face him. "So where is that dragon freak now."

"We got separated up on the roof." Yuri put his hand on his hip. "I'm pretty sure he, or if Lloyd's right, she, wasn't too badly hurt..."

"Good, because I can't very well beat him, her, whatever up if he's, she's... WHATEVER's, already injured!" Rita exclaims.

"Whoa, whoa, that's the whole reason you came here?" Raven meshes his fingers behind his neck.

"No!" Rita snaps. "I also can't forgive this Barbos guy for what he did! Abusing Blastia like that! Has he no shame?" Rita rants.

"I saw the dragon flying off." Lloyd offers. "Maybe the rider already left." Rita turns her rage to him, although it ends with him trading a bit out of her book again.

"That's no reason to bring the Princess along with you to a dangerous place like this." Yuri points out. "And on that, what were you thinking?" Yuri looks at Lloyd.

"We have a good group going." Lloyd crosses his arms behind his head. "With Raven and Judith's addition, we can cover nearly all sides. 'Just for revenge' isn't a good reason to split the group up like that, especially if you don't take a healer. In other words, I was thinking to keep your hide in one piece."

"And it isn't Lloyd or Rita's fault. Lloyd offered the plan, and I decided to come here, myself." Estelle insists. "I can't see bad people doing harm to others and simply let it happen."

"I agree." Judith smiles. "Very well said."

"Captain Karol, don't let me down!" Yuri shrugs. "I'm counting on your skills!"

"Yes, of course!" Karol raises a fist. "Come on, let's go take that jerk to school!"

"I don't understand that." Lloyd mutters. Karol, Rita, Raven and Estelle head forward.

"I'm sorry, but would you mind keeping your background to yourself? We've got someone who might kind of explode if she knew." Yuri explains after Rita's out of ear shot.

"Sure, I understand. That'll be best for both of our interests." Her wine eyes flick to Lloyd. "You could tell I was a girl? I'm sure I've never said anything around you while in that armor." Lloyd grin-grimaced.

"Armor shape." Lloyd raises a finger. "And 'cause I've got that... bit of Krityan, I can sense some things. I knew you weren't human either, but..." Lloyd shrugged, dropping his hand.

"I see." Judith says.

"Time to catch up."

* * *

(1)We decided that Kratos's grandfather was half-Elven(So he had a tiny aptitude for Mana before Aionis ingestion. But very tiny. As one of the characters I hadn't named for that said 'he sets himself on fire as often as something he wants'. ) ... and to make Kritya just about perfectly balanced 'half-Elven', despite their full-Elven ear appearances, so they live on average to 500 rather than the full 1000. Because the game doesn't tell us things like that. D: Stupid lack of information.


	16. Gears

Liiiive!

Evil car trouble today. Friend(my ride to and from college)'s car simply didn't turn on...

Turned over and made noises and battery was fine and everything... but wouldn't _run_.

so instead of leaving campus around 1:30pm... it was 5pm D:

then there was Arbies, and Clash of the Titans, and i was home by 8pm. But yeah, here it is!

* * *

"I've seen some towers in my day..." Lloyd mutters as he looks about. "But who makes one entirely out of gears?" Raven stared at him for a moment, before muttering complaints of how 'I'm the old man, not you...'

"It's cool." Rita says, eyeing two gears that weren't moving. Stupid puzzles.

"I kind of like it." Estelle looks about while Yuri sighs, waiting for the mage to tell him which gear to hit with the Sorcerer's ring, because she'd screamed at him when he set up aim before she had a look.

"I know! Gears, gears, gears!" Karol complains as Rita points to one of the gears in a row of them and Yuri knocks it into place with the sorcerer's ring, not for the first time, and definitely not the first time they passed that particular gear. "They're in the monsters, they're in the walls, they're stopping us from going up! Isn't Ruins' Gate the guild that's obsessed with Blastia?" While the gears groaned, and a staircase fell as more green light rose from the central clear pillar in the center.

"Du'no." Lloyd knocks a gear-golem down the flight of stairs and grinned as it clattered and didn't come back up. "I know a mage who's really good with techy ... Blastia stuff. Didn't have this sort of fascination, though." When Estelle tilted her head and looked at Rita, Lloyd's grinned widened. "Naw, not Rita."

"Aha!" Rita pointed up at the green pillar Aer flowing and stair that unfolded. "This better be the last floor." And luckily for Raven and Karol, the mage's favorite targets, it was. They reached an elevator after looting several boxes of healing items, a spear, and a cape.

It was rather gray out, a dawn sort of light.

"We spent the entire night in there?" Lloyd scratches the back of his head, looking about with one blade drawn.

"Didn't quite feel like it." Yuri mutters, taking point.

"Back again huh, you stubborn punk?" Barbos bellows at them.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Yuri calls back.

"Hey, the core in that sword!" Rita shouts. "Is that the core to the Aque Blastia." She demands.

"Yes, it's gotta be." Yuri eyes it.

"These fools don't know when to give up. Capua Nor, Dahngrest, and all the way to Ghasfarost!" Barbos growls to himself. "I've always hated kids."

"Who are you calling a kid? I'm 36, damn it!" Lloyd grumbles.

"Barbos, this has gone on long enough." Estelle points at him. "Save what's left of your honor and give up!"

"Oh, this is far from finished." Barbos promises darkly. "I've put 10 years into building Ghasfarost Spire, and while it stands, nothing can stop me!" Barbos yells as he raises his chainsaw blade into the air, then points it at them. "And with that man and the empire wrapped around my finger, I was able to build my magnificent Blastia."

"Watch where you're pointing that thing." Lloyd says with a frown, and the sword shifted and glowed with white light. Yuri lead the way to a lower level as an explosion happened where they had been.

"You think I'm just gonna let you waste the lower quarter's core like this?" Yuri asks, irritated.

"Oh, it won't go to waste." Barbos hovered down to their level. "I'll use this to eliminate Whitehorse, and then I will be leader of the guilds. Then the Empire is next! With this power at my disposal, the very world will be mine!"

"You know you're gunna die now, right?" Lloyd wriggled a finger in his ear from his free hand. "You just told us your grand plan..."

"Not if I kill you first!" Barbos snarls. "Be gone, worms!" Barbos pointed the chainsaw at them again, and Lloyd muttered something unflattering in the tones of a chant. A white wall, a seal of a shielding technique under their feet, and the explosions did little more than rock them.

"That sword is gonna be a problem." Yuri mutters as Lloyd sighs and the white vanished.

"Problem?" Raven repeats, before adding on incredulously. "Is that thing even legal?"

"It is very powerful." Judith comments. Barbos laughs as he raised his sword again.

"The Blastia seems to be working just fine!" His blade was engulfed in a blue vortex and explosions raced along the rim of the tower.

"What...?" Estelle stares while Karol gapes.

"What's wrong?" Barbos lowered his blade to eye it.

"You haven't won yet." Yuri notes, his smirk back in place.

"All right, playtime's over!" Barbos raises his blade again. "Time to wipe Dahngrest off the map, and you along with it!" Lloyd looks like he was going to lunge forward, no matter that the Blood Alliance Guild master was holding a blade that was covered in a whirlwind, but he stopped, looking puzzled and up.

"Get down." That deep voice was vaguely familiar, as they had heard it only in the forest, and sure enough, the white-haired, red-eyed Duke was on the higher level of the Tower. They did so, and light flared about Duke. He did something again, his strange blade glowing, before he raised it and shockwaves of yellowed light flared out. After his shockwaves, Barbos' blade also glowed and gave off rings of light.

"What?" Barbos was not pleased, and when the light dimmed so that they could actually see, his sword was in half, and barely moving. Duke stared at them all for a moment, before turning around and walking off.

"What happened to not having any time or interest?" Raven grumbles, back on his feet.

"Hey, that's...!" Rita stared at him as he walked out of their sight.

"Rita, never mind that!" Yuri snaps, as everyone's back on their feet. Barbos whacks his sword onto the ground. It gives off flames.

"...Piece of crap!" Barbos snarls at his weapon. Lloyd's grinning, and doesn't straighten from his 'ready' stance.

"Looks like the tables have turned, Barbos." Yuri calls.

"... So all that fancy wisdom and the power of Blastia were nothing but a sham..." Barbos drops the blade. Yuri settled into a crouch again as well. "Should have known from the start that I'd have to depend on my own strength." He had his big blade with the gold spikes on the back again. "Take up your swords!" He actually lowers his blade while he tells them this.

"You know, he was so much easier to deal with when he was all drunk on power." Raven moans.

"Yeah, there's nothing worse than an enlightened idiot." Rita mutters.

"I am the only man to stand as Whitehorse' equal in battle." Barbos says, raising his blade towards them. "Now you will know the power of Barbos the Stormblast..."

"You know, 'since you're equal and all, that means you're not better than him..." Lloyd's grin is somewhat evil. "Which means that pasting you's gunna be easy."

"... And his Blood Alliance!" Barbos finished his sentence.

"Oh, you've got minions." Lloyd reminds himself, watching as a handful of mages and a double hand full of bladesmen run across bridges.

"Get out there, kill 'em!" Barbos shouts to his guild, although he did join the group as they headed closer.

"I'd like to see you try!" Yuri shouts, running for a mage.

"Those are bridges." Lloyd says, before his face lights up. "Bridges have controls..." Lloyd left their ranks toward a glowing green ball, one of four.

"Lloyd, what are you doing?" Judith asks, following Yuri, while Raven pulled his bow back and fired.

"Bridges have supports, I guess." Lloyd left one of the little pillars with the ball gone, the gear bridge folding back.

"Splash!" One of the mages with Barbos calls, and Lloyd swerved to avoid the water spell.

"Smile of wavering darkness!" Rita's scarf flashes through the air and creates the sphere of runes about her. "Spread Zero!" Lloyd again changed course, despite this being an allies spell and not going to do more than make his vision blurry for a few seconds and jumped the sphere.

Then Yuri had to stop paying attention to the man's actions because he'd felled a mage and two swordsmen, one with a dagger, really, but they were trying to stab him in any case. _Destruction Field_ knocked them back so he could take another down with _Dragon Swarm_ and start a _Shining Fang_ on another.

With Raven and Repede distracting Barbos from attacking Judith or Yuri while they cut through his henchmen, or attacking Rita as she did the same, or Estelle from healing, it wasn't long until Barbos called for reinforcements. Yuri turned to look at the bridges, and found the one that was still up. A trio of swordsman and a mage hurried along it, then there was a excited shout from Lloyd and the gears moved back. One swordsman survived by quickly turning tail, but the others were knocked down into the pits below as the gears folded.

"Agh..." Barbos glared at them with his one eye. "Y-you'll never beat me!"

* * *

I don't want to write a fight scene.

Deal D:

Anywho, Lloyd uses no Strike Artes, still...

Use your imagination, it's all of them against Barbos. :D

This is the real reason for the posting time gap *grin*

* * *

Barbos grunts, staggering to a stop at the edge of the raised platform.

"Your henchmen have run out on you..." Yuri tells him. "That's it, Barbos. It looks like you were the fool who didn't know when to give up." Lloyd's rubbing his arm a bit, brown-red eyes on the guild master. Barbos coughs, then laughs.

"Perhaps you are right."

"Then you'll surrender?" Estelle kept the horn out.

"I...I won't be humiliated any more than this..." Barbos growls out. "Yuri, was it?" Barbos eyes the violet haired man. "You remind me of Whitehorse in his youth... You're his spitting image."

"Hope you're not saying I'm gunna end up like that old man." Yuri says, smirking a bit. "Not exactly something to look forward too."

"Like the Don, sooner or later you will make great enemies in this world." Barbos says, his breathing labored. "... and then that world will consume you whole. Regret, sorrow, and despair will hound you all the way to hell, and I will be waiting there for you." Barbos straightens, holding Yuri's eyes. Yuri straightens, and then darts forward, Estelle blinking then on his heels. Barbos falls backward, Lloyd watching with his hands in his pockets.

"Why is there no Quick Jump option?" Lloyd complains as they head back down the many staircases in the tower.

"A what now?" Raven blinks, glancing over.

"Something that makes travel faster." Lloyd kicked a gear from a fallen golem out of the way as they go down another flight of stairs. "I mean, I've never gotten one for a tower, but after I complained once, there was one in a forest, and the sewers, and after this one fight, one all the way back to my dad's house on a different continent."

"Really?" Raven rubbed his chin. "That sounds handy."

"Yep, I mean, everything's dead and gone in here, so why can't we just-"

Shut up, Lloyd.

"-Bu-"

And an hour finds them outside Ghasfarost.

"Wow, that is really nice." Raven nods.

"What are you two talking about?" Yuri glances back at the twinblade and archer.

"Nothing." Both reply.

"Okay... Anyway, I'm so glad the core is safe." Yuri lightly tosses the blue Blastia Core.

"Wow, the aque Blastia core is so small." Estelle notices.

"So we've got your Blastia core back." Karol nods while Yuri pockets it. "That takes care of one problem."

"Yes, but we weren't able to take Barbos into custody..." Estelle sighs.

"We saved them work." Lloyd shrugs. "If we'd taken him in, he'd likely just have been killed anyway. Although, technically, he saved them work..."

"Exactly, a creep like that- Ow!" Yuri thumps her side.

"I think it's too early to say anything's taken care of." Yuri looks at his core again. "I have to find out if this thing even works anymore."

"Blastia cores don't break all that easily." Rita says.

"Huh. Bet you didn't know that, did ya Ra-" Yuri looked for the Archer, and didn't find him. "Raven?"

"He left a minute ago." Lloyd scratches the back of his neck.

"Jeez, what is up with that guy..." Rita complains. "Just showing up whenever he wants."

"You're one to talk, Rita." Karol points out. Rita raised a first, and even through Yuri stood between him and the mage, Karol cringed.

"It takes all kinds, I suppose." Judith offers with a smile. Yuri nods, and turns about.

"He probably went back to Dahngrest. I'm sure we can find him if we need too."

"Why do you look so sad?" Estelle asks. It's a truly indescribable expression for Yuri. "Are you okay?"

"I was just thinking." Yuri says quickly, turning back about with his usual slightly-smug blank expression. "I still owe that creep Dedecchi a good beating."

"You got the Blastia back, isn't that enough?" Karol blinks at Yuri. "Why chase after some stupid thief?"

"Because it's likely he didn't only steal from the Lower Quarter, and is thus more likely to cause problems again." Lloyd shrugs.

"... I guess." Yuri shrugs as well. "If I ever cross paths with him though, he's in for a surprise." Yuri promises darkly, then glances away. "... waiting for me in hell, huh? Why'd he have to go and say that...?"

"Hey, come on already, let's get back to Dahngrest!" Karol's shout nearly drowned Yuri's muttered comment.

"Yes, we should tell Flynn about what happened with Barbos." Estelle agrees.

"Speaking of Flynn, was he able to calm things down in Dahngrest?" Yuri asks. Lloyd's looking about a bit confusedly.

"Yes." Estelle nods. "Thanks to his efforts, the empire and the guilds both laid down their swords. After that, he left to pursue Ragou. He's most likely captured him by now."

"Oh." Yuri blinks. Judith wanders from the back by the door toward the edge of their group.

"Well, I will take my leave from you here."

"Off to meet up with your friend?" Lloyd asks, grinning a little like a kid who knew what he was getting for Christmas.

"Friend?" Estelle tilts her head. "Who do you mean?"

"We'll be operating individually from now on." Judith tilts her head, smiling. "That way we won't interfere with each other's work."

"I see." Yuri smirks a little. "Well, see you later."

"Yeah..." Judith wandered off, and they started back into the desert before a howl rang through the air.

"Monster?" Karol pulls his over large blade back out, as a white and green shape bounds for them. Lloyd brightens considerably.

"Noishe!" The creature howls, and then jumps over the entire party to knock the twinblade down. "Ah! Noishe, stoppit, I don't need a bath!" Karol lowered his blade and Yuri let his hand fall away from his sheath as the green and white dog the size of a knight's horse was happily licking Lloyd's face, holding his arms down with purple-socked forepaws. "Yes, yes, I missed you; I've been looking for you, but stop cleaning me!" Estelle giggled. Although the creature, the Noishe, was taller than both Karol and Rita, it was acting more like an excited puppy. Whining, Lloyd had got his hand around the dog-creature's muzzle, the green and white beast stepped off Lloyd, who's hair was picking up sand even more due to the sheen of dog slobber. "Ewww, Noishe..." he rubbed his face off with his sleeve and got up.

"Okay... What is that?" Rita asks, pointing at the creature, who gave her a blink and shied behind Lloyd. It had a canine muzzle, large, almost wing like ears, a thick white and green coat, and a wolf-like tail, as well as paws and standing shoulder to shoulder on Lloyd.

"This is Noishe." Lloyd rubs Noishe between the ears. "He's a bit of a coward, but he's been around for all my life."

"That's a monster!" Karol points at it.

"No, Noishe is a dog." Lloyd insists, frowning.

"No, _Repede_'s a dog!" Rita points at the knight hound.

"Well.. Noishe is just a bigger dog!" Lloyd crosses his arms. Noishe is gingerly sniffing noses with Repede. The knight hound sneezes once, then sits down next to the green and white oversized dog.

"Well, he's dog enough for Repede." Yuri shrugs. "Welcome to the group!"

"Yes, nice to meet you!" Estelle reaches a hand out politely to Noishe. Noishe eyes her, his small brown eyes far too intelligent, and sniffs her hand. He stays behind Lloyd though.

"Noishe usually isn't too good about strangers." Lloyd shrugs. "They kinda... scare him."

"Does he bite?" Karol asks, at the same time Rita asked "Does it have fleas?" Noishe gave an indignant yelp.

"No, no biting. Not anymore, and not really ever." Lloyd frowns at the green and white dog. "And he better not have fleas, otherwise I am going to scrub him. And then shave him."

* * *

Yaaay! It's a Noishe!

If you get the refrence, i give you an e-cookie. :D


	17. Night

I liiiiiivvvvee!

Anyway, a slightly unrelated note. Only 'cause you guys are my largest Reveiw Base (and i love you for it)

I need help with You're gunna go far kid. Which means, i need assassination plots. I've got 'bar fight turns deadly', 'play little lost kid and kill', and 'sneak in and kill' in the works/done. I've got one cliff-face-shooting, because there aren't too many big cities.

And I need more. :D Reveiw an idea? Please?

* * *

"Look, the Knights have come back." Karol points out as they pause on the long bridge into Dahngrest. Like Lloyd had said, his large green and white pet was terrified of monsters – every time they grew close to one, or a group, Noishe would whine, howl and go in the opposite direction, and return after they'd killed it. And like usual for Dahngrest, it was dusk.

"I'm innocent, I tell you!" Ragou was among the knights, and protesting it. "This is a plot by the Knights to destroy the Council!"

"He doesn't know when to quit, does he?" Rita asks, hands on her hips.

"Do you think he notices he's in a guild city, surrounded by the very knights he claims are plotting against him?" Lloyd asks, grinning as he scratches between his dog's ears.

"Think he doesn't." Karol agrees.

"... Where's Flynn?" Estelle looks about.

"I can't make him out from here." Yuri says.

"He's not directly ahead." Lloyd says, shrugging as he walks forward, Noishe keeping up with him.

"How'do ya know that?" Karol eyes Lloyd as they walk toward the group.

"I do." Lloyd rolls his shoulders. "He's that way." Lloyd nods toward the left, and they stop.

"You must not be taken in by the Knights!" Ragou shouts. "They only plan to crush this town once you've been all lured into a false sense of safety!"

"On the honor of the Imperial Knights, I swear that we would never perpetrate such a disloyalty." Flynn walks closer and Ragou's head snaps toward him.

"You're... Flynn Scifo!" Ragou turns the rest of the way about and notes with a bit of distaste as Flynn stops on the other side of the Knights from Ragou. Lloyd blinks, watching Flynn with faint confusion.

"The empire and the Union have joined in a treaty for friendship." Flynn continues.

"What? Impossible..." Ragou mutters.

"At this moment. Don Whitehorse and His Highness Ioder are in council together." Flynn raises his voice while Lloyd looks like he's lost in his own mind and the others watch on. "It's only a matter of time until it's made official."

"But how...?" Ragou looks down. "I thought that cursed Alexei was tied up in other matters."

"Yes. It is true that our Commandant could only make a brief appearance before returning to the capital."

"Then... on whose authority...?" Ragou asks, before his head snaps up again. "... No! This can't mean my plans have been ruined by this... this boy!"

"This will put an end to the suffering of the people of Capua Nor as well." Estelle says, glancing at Yuri.

"At least, it should." Lloyd nods.

"Here's hoping the next magistrate they get is more of a stand up guy, so that it does." Yuri says.

"I will do what I can to make sure a worthy person is chosen when I get back to the castle." Estelle says.

"To the castle..." Karol echoes. "You mean, you're going back to the capital, Estelle?"

"...Yes." Estelle nods. "With Ragou gone, the rest of the castle should have returned to normal." Estelle's hands tightened on each other, and Yuri glanced back at the column of knights.

"But you don't really want to go back." It wasn't a question.

"What do you mean?" Estelle's hands loosen and drop.

"I can see it in your face." Yuri says, glancing over his shoulder at her.

"No..I-i..." Yuri cuts her off.

"Well, you should do what suits you best." Yuri looks back across the knights. "You've made up your own mind, right?"

"...I will go back." Estelle says, looking down. "I don't want Flynn or anyone else to have to worry about me anymore."

"It's going to be lonely without her, won't it Repede?" Yuri asks his dog. The knight hound glanced at him. The knights moved away, marching in line down Dahngrest's streets and left the way to the inn clear.

Lloyd had to argue with the inn keep to allow Noishe to stay with them, but with an extra fee, he was allowed to. They made dinner, bade their goodnights, and headed to rooms separate by gender. Noishe sat at the foot of the bed Lloyd claimed while the twinblade did his nightly thing, and Yuri simply shucked his boots and threw himself down on the bed.

"'night."

When Karol left, Yuri didn't know, but he did know when he came back by the shouting.

"Yuri! Lloyd! It's terrible!" The preteen shouts.

"Wha'?" Lloyd blinked, shoving the pillow off his head.

"Aw... man..." Yuri sits up. "Just let me sleep..."

"Ragou, he, he...!" Karol was too emotional to say it. The sleepy look vanished from Yuri's face.

"What did Ragou do?" Yuri stood, and Lloyd sat up, blinking in the soft light from the lamps.

"They say he used his standing in the Council to reduce his charges!" Karol wails.

"That asshole!" Lloyd grunts, looking angry. Yuri's expression shifted but he didn't say anything.

"It looks like he's going to get off with only a minor drop in rank! After everything he did!"

"This has got to be a joke." Yuri crossed the room so he was standing next to Noishe.

"Who said?" Lloyd asks.

"Some people from the meeting!" Karol wails. "It isn't a joke! It's the truth! I heard knights and the handful of guildsmen allowed in saying the same thing!"

"So this is how the empire works now, huh?" Yuri mutters. "Damn it, this is not funny."

"What do we do?" Karol asks, looking down.

"I think we'd get into... large amounts of trouble if I bothered asking where Ragou is now, so I'm going to roll over and hope this is a bad dream and be glad I'm not imperial." Lloyd grunts, looking sour.

"Lloyd!"

"Karol, I'm not sayin' I'm okay with it. I'm just saying if I meet Ragou again, no one will after me." Lloyd's grin wasn't a cheery one. "Just sayin' that right now, I'd do something... obviously me. And I'm not that stupid."

"Hmm..." Yuri glanced at Lloyd. "I don't know."

"How can he not get punished?" Karol insists.

"By having too much money." Lloyd says, watching them. "He can pay people off to vote in his favor."

"Ah! Wait! If we tell Estelle, maybe she can do something about it!" Karol grins and darts away.

"Hey, don't be giving the Princess too much trouble!" Yuri calls after him, but the door shuts and he glances at Lloyd. "... You're not really thinking of just turning your back, are you?"

"No. But I'm only going to do something once I figure out how to lead trails to Barbos. Or someone else who's an asshat. Like Cumore." Lloyd says, smirking. "Yes, I know Barbos' dead, but if I put it together right... It could be a plot planned in advance."

"I think you're putting too much thought into it." Yuri says. Lloyd shrugs.

"I'm not an Imperial, and I've no guild. No one's going to step up to save my ass if it falls into the fire." He leaned back on the pillows, and closed his eyes for a moment. A second later, he opened one. "Or maybe I'm just a paranoid old man."

"Whatever." Yuri waves at him, then wanders out.

* * *

Yuri stared off the bridge, then turned and headed back into town. He nearly knocked into an armored man.

"Oh. Sorry 'bout that." Yuri blinked at the familiar voice behind a steel half-helm and glanced up. The man was wearing a short blue-stained leather coat and steel armor in only strategic locations, dark brown leather armor and dark under armor coating the underside of his jaw and neck, and that helm only let Yuri see up to his nose with the tiny height difference."Oh. Hello, Yuri."

"Who're-_Lloyd_?" Yuri blinked, and was treated to half a face's blinding grin.

"Yep." The helm came off and then a hood freed messy red-tinted brown hair, and the black that had been up to his jaw line fell loose as well. Lloyd balanced the helm between his arm and his hip, his stance one that wasn't his own.

"What are you wearing?" Yuri blinked at the armor ensemble.

"Something I stole some... seventeen years ago." Lloyd shrugs. "Complete with a sword off a Blood Alliance guildsman." Lloyd tapped the hilt behind his head. "Nothing I like to wear or use, but... it works."

"You thought it through, didn't ya?" Yuri smirks.

"Yep." Lloyd looks down the bridge, then back at Yuri. "You know where Ragou is?"

"He skipped town already." Yuri shrugs. Lloyd stared down the bridge, then glanced at Yuri, and then his eyes fell to Yuri's blade, and to the bridge once more.

"I see." Lloyd smirks a little too, the strangely sly expression that didn't quite suit him. "Well, just my luck then. Oh well." Lloyd clapped a hand on Yuri's shoulder. "Hope it made you feel better."

"Don't know what you mean." Yuri shrugs. "All I saw was him run out of town like some monster was on his heels."

"Of course." Lloyd shrugs, and turns to walk off. "I'll be back at the inn later."

* * *

ehehehe. Recognize the description of the armor? :D


	18. Star

Yay :D

Longer chapter this time.

* * *

"Yuri? Are you awake?" Karol woke Yuri again, blinking once at Lloyd, who was splayed out awkwardly on his bed. "... I don't think Lloyd is." Yuri rolled over to face the wall. "Estelle and Rita already took off."

"Oh..." Yuri mutters.

"Okay." Lloyd startles Karol, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes.

"If you hurry, you might be able to catch her." Karol tells Yuri.

"I can meet them anytime I want." Yuri replies.

"Jeez, Yuri." Karol makes a face at him. "Lloyd, are you going to say bye?"

"No." Lloyd rubbed his head, and finger combed his hair. "The knights... not going to happen."

"Fine!" Karol shouts. "If that's how you're gonna be." Lloyd pretends not to hear Yuri's mumble while putting the outer layer of his clothes on. Repede and Noishe jumped up as an explosion sounded, one that startled Lloyd into dropping his scabbards.

"What the?" Yuri didn't hesitate in throwing his stuff on and grabbing his scabbard and running out, Lloyd on his heels as the elder male tugged his boots on and clamped the buckles on the sides in between steps. Repede led them, and Noishe trailed behind. Karol was still outside. "Monsters?" Yuri asks, stopping to look about, leaving Lloyd in the doorway.

"Yuri!" Karol cheers, then glances to the side. "Lloyd!"

"Karol! Any idea what that thing is?" Yuri asks of the former Hunting Blade's guildsman.

"No, I've never seen anything like that before..." Karol watches it.

"That's a big bird." Lloyd says, watching the flame-like beast fly over Dahngrest.

"It's coming down!" Karol wails. Yuri watched the dive path, then started running.

"Come on, Karol!" Yuri shouts, hearing Lloyd start then pass him.

"What? Hey, wait!" Karol shouts and follows. Noishe whined, dancing from paw to paw in indecision, then caught up to and passed Lloyd. Lloyd didn't stop for the knights, but Yuri spotted a familiar blonde kneeling among them and did.

"What is going on here?" Yuri crouched next to Flynn, who was breathing heavily and resting on his blade.

"Yuri..." Flynn glanced at him. "Protect Her Highness..."

"Yuri, look!" Karol points ahead, at the point Lloyd had almost and Noishe had reached. Estelle knelt next to a knight, hands out to heal him. The bird was hovering over the water from Estelle, and watched her. Armor clanking from behind had Yuri glancing. Alexei approached.

"The Commandant?" Flynn blinks, but didn't get to his feet. "Why is he here?"

"... Our finest knights..." He didn't sound angry that they'd been knocked down, but angry that something capable of doing so was there. Alexei looked back over to the bird. "I am left with no choice... We will stop this beast with the help of Heracles!" Alexei tells the knight behind him. The two with him run back, and Yuri and Karol try to overtake Lloyd. "Yuri, wait! There's nothing more you can do!"

"Hah!" Yuri doesn't pause for him, but turns his head and shouts back. "You expect me to stand by while that thing makes a snack out of Estelle?" Yuri saw the bird knock Lloyd back with a wing, the twinblade skidding away from Estelle, before it spoke. Something hit it, and the bird flew away.

"Yuri!" Estelle cries, spotting the dark clad swordsman.

"You're safe." Yuri says, relieved, and glances at Lloyd, who was getting back up.

"I'm okay. Bruised. I'll get myself." Lloyd says, waving him away, and they turned to stare at the giant machine that was firing at the bird.

"What is that?" Yuri eyed the thing. It was taller than Dahngrest.

"Heracles..." Estelle names it, shocked.

"Whoa, we've gotta get out of here!" Karol says, eyes wide. Yuri turns half toward Dahngrest again.

"I'm going to leave the city and continue my journey." Yuri says.

"What do you mean?" Estelle turns away from the firing behemoth and watches Yuri.

"If you're going back to the capital, you shouldn't keep Flynn waiting." Yuri continues, and Estelle glances back toward the knights. "It's for you to decide."

"Then, I..." Estelle clasped her hands. "I want to continue the journey as well!" Estelle decides. Yuri watches her, then gives a much more smile-like smirk, offering her a hand which she takes.

"Now that's what I wanted to he-" Yuri grunted as one of the cannon blasts sounded far too close.

"Time to move!" Lloyd shouts, and Noishe noses his way under Karol and takes off down the bridge as the blast hits where they were standing a moment before and crumbles it.

"Aaahh!" Karol screams, but grabs onto the thick neck fur of Noishe either way.

"Judith?" Estelle spotted the Krityan as the indigo haired woman stared at the large bird. Estelle let go of Yuri's hand and turned about. "Don't! It's too dangerous!" Estelle says.

"Look who's talking!" Yuri points out, darting back to the two young women.

"I'll be fine." Judith says, watching Estelle. "You go on ahead."

"Are we running, or are we gossiping?" Lloyd shouts back to them, running backwards next to Noishe, Karol and Repede.

"Come on, quickly!" Estelle grabs onto one of Judith's hands.

"My, you're a stubborn one." Judith comments as she follows the princess. Yuri noticed the bird started flying off.

"Huh? Why's it taking off?" Karol watches as the bird flies away a little to the right of the rising sun with a shrill cry.

"Yuri, Lady Estellise, wait!" A familiar cry sounds. Flynn's back on his feet, although he looks like he's in pain.

"Here comes the cavalry." Yuri comments. There's just a good and huge gap between the bridge where they were, and where Flynn stood.

"I'm sorry, Flynn." Estelle heads to the edge on their side. "I realize now I can't just go back to the capital. There are too many things I still need to know."

"Surely, after returning to the capital you can..." Flynn trailed off as Estelle shook her head.

"The voices of the people suffering in Nor Harbor never reached the capital. I won't be able to achieve anything if I'm not willing to approach these problems head on..." Estelle looked down, then back at Flynn. "I've come to realize that during my travels. That's why! That's why I have to keep going!"

Yuri pretended not to notice when Lloyd glanced to the right and muttered 'I do _not_ rub off on people!'

"Your Highness..." Yuri turned, and over handed something to Flynn. A glowing blue something.

"Flynn, get this core back to the lower quarter!" Flynn caught it, looking startled.

"Yuri!"

"I won't be going back to the capital anytime soon." Yuri calls over. "I'm going to start up a guild. Give my regards to Hanks and everyone else."

"Yuri...!" Karol looked like he had tears in his eyes.

"... A guild." Flynn repeats. "So that's what you meant by doing things your own way."

"Yeah, I've finally made up my mind." Yuri calls back.

"...That's fine, but what about Princess-" Flynn insists.

"Take care, Flynn." Yuri calls, cutting him off, and they turn to start walking away.

"Yuri!" Flynn shouts.

"I suppose I should've talked to you first, but here's to our new guild, Karol." Yuri stops next to the small guildsman.

"Right!" Yuri and Karol share a high five.

"All right. Let's go." Yuri looks across the group. "If we hang around here much longer, some of those Knights are bound to come after us." Estelle turned and bowed a little to Flynn, before running to the group and walking with them.

* * *

While they were running, Karol, having dropped off Noishe while they talked to Flynn, nearly face planted.

"I know we've got to get out of town, but I'm dyin' here." Karol complains.

"You're just not used to a little morning exercise." Yuri comments. "It's not much further, come on Karol."

"Just how far are we going?" Judith asks.

"I guess Heliord's our closest destination, so at least until there."

"What?" Karol nearly screeches.

"Should we rest a little once we get out of the city limits?" Estelle asks.

"A-agreed!" Karol says.

"Okay, okay." Yuri sounds like he's trying not to laugh. "Now let's get moving."

"Noishe can give Karol a ride." Lloyd grabs onto Karol and sets him on the green and white creature.

"What do I do?" Karol flails a little.

"Hold on here."

"What if he goes to fast?"

"Ask him to slow down."

"What if I'm gunna be sick?"

"Tell him, and he'll dump you. Sick's nasty to clean out of his fur."

* * *

"What happened to taking a break?" Karol had given up on riding Noishe when they'd been hit by rain, because for all of his size, Noishe smelt like wet dog when wet. And with it still raining, he wasn't going to smell any better, any time soon.

"It's probably a good time." Judith glances back. "Looks like no one is following us anymore."

"...How can you tell?" Estelle wasn't the only one to look at Judith, but she voiced it.

"Hmm." Judith glanced back at them. "Intuition I suppose."

"Intuition?" Karol asks, startled.

"Don't make fun of intuition. It's handy." Lloyd says, shaking his head in an effort to keep his hair out of his face. It doesn't work.

"Anyway, we should be fine here." Yuri says, shifting to draw attention to himself rather than Judith. "Let's rest for now."

"All right. Let me get this set up." Lloyd pulls a tent out of his pack, and with some sticks held in place by Noishe, he got an awning up to shelter them from the rain. "Sorry, Noishe, you reek. Stay out there."

"When we have time to take a longer rest, we've got to decide a few things about our guild." Karol says, sitting under the shelter.

"What is it with you and taking breaks?" Yuri asks, amused.

"What do you hope to accomplish by starting a guild?" Judith asks.

"Accomplish...?" Yuri tilts his head, rubbing his jaw a little. "Hmm..."

"I want our guild to become really big." Karol says. "And then someday we'll follow in the Don's footsteps and protect Dahngrest ourselves. That way, I can show him my gratitude for all the years he's defended the city."

"That's a wonderful dream, Karol." Estelle smiles.

"It is. But also, what do you want to do while working for that?" Lloyd asks. "Do you want to slay monsters, defend barrier-less locations, hunt down lawbreakers for people? Not that you have to decide now, but think on that too."

"I'll just stick with the boss, here." Yuri says.

"Huh? B-boss? Me?" Karol blinks.

"You were the first one to bring up this crazy idea." Yuri points out.

"H-heh, I guess you're right." Karol was nearly beaming. "So, what's the first order of business?"

"To calm down." Yuri smirks.

"Y-yeah." Karol does.

"You make guilds sound like fun." Judith giggles a little.

"Why don't you join the guild as well, Judith?" Estelle turns to the Krityan.

"Hmmm, I wonder. Do you think they'd let me?" Judith tilts her head, smiling benignly.

"The most important thing is obeying the guild's laws." Lloyd blinks as Karol's reply seems to come from a completely random direction. "Those who break the laws are severely punished. Even friends or family." Lloyd frowned a little, but Karol continued. "The laws are the source of a guild's pride. No one can be admitted without making a solemn pledge to uphold them."

"And what are the laws of your guild, Karol?" Estelle asks, while Judith crossed her arms to hold the opposite elbow.

"Umm..." Karol blinks, thinking.

"Everybody supporting each other, and always acting with the interests of the guild in mind." Yuri says. "Striving to always do the right thing, while punishing those who don't."

"What do you mean?" Karol asks for clarification.

"All for the guild and the guild for all." Estelle simplifies it. "Do justice, and punish the unjust."

"Try 'collectively morally right'." Lloyd offers, his expression a grimace of distaste.

"Huh?" Estelle blinks.

"'Justice' is a very grey word. It's also a stupid one. I don't like it." Lloyd says, crossing his arms.

"Why?" Karol blinks as attention turned to the twinblade.

"Because one man's justice and another man's can be completely different things, but it's the same word, and both claim they're in the right." Lloyd scratches behind the ears of his 'dog'. "It's an ideal, and one that's easily twisted depending on who uses it."

"Huh?" Karol frowns.

"I agree." Judith smiles slightly.

"Good point." Yuri nods. "Let's use our own 'justice'."

"Karol, think of it this way. There's a fight between two groups... Let's call them pirates and ninjas. Ninja's are the law, and pirates are the thieves. But, if the pirates win, they get to become the law. Because their 'justice' was stronger." Lloyd nods, evidently liking his analogy.

"... You stopped making sense." Karol tells him.

"I agree with captain Karol." Yuri smirks.

"Look, a butterfly.." Judith notices something.

"Where?" Estelle blinks and looks for it. Noishe barks, looking about in the same sort of way that Estelle was.

"Just make a list or something of things you find within your... 'justice'." Lloyd's distaste for the word was evident. "So others can know while they join, or something."

"Everyone's opinion will be valued, so long as it doesn't go against these laws." Yuri says, nodding a little.

"... That's just what I..." Karol whispers, understanding the laws, and finding them to be just about what he wanted.

"Right, boss?" Yuri smirks at Karol.

"All for the guild and the guild for all..." Karol repeats, then looks like he's going to explode with joy. "Y-yeah! That's it! Those are our laws!"

"It looks like these will be my laws from now on as well." Judith says after a moment of thought.

"Sure it's okay to make up your mind like that?" Yuri asks over his shoulder.

"Yes. You've got me curious. 'All for the guild...' I like the way that sounds." Judith smiles.

"Well then..." Karol prompts her a little.

"I pledge to uphold the laws. For the guild's sake... and my own." Judith says. Repede wanders over to sit at Yuri's feet while Estelle smiles.

"How about your partner?" Yuri asks.

"Thanks for your concern, but it's all right." Judith tilts her head a little. "He won't mind."

"Your partner...?" Karol blinks.

"A friend I was traveling with earlier." Judith explains without really explaining.

"Huh, I didn't know you had someone like that." Karol blinks again. "Okay, so from today on we'll be your new partners, Judith."

"I look forward to it." Judith smiles.

"Me too!" Karol cheers. Repede barks. Estelle eyed Lloyd thoughtfully.

"Are you going to join, Lloyd?" Estelle asks.

"Ah? Me?" Lloyd blinked.

"The more the merrier." Yuri says, before watching Lloyd again. "And it would give you a reason to keep following us around."

"Ha ha ha. For your information, I just like the company. You amuse me." Lloyd laughs a little sarcastically, scratching between Noishe's ears. "... Give me time to think about it. I have ... plans."

"Oh?" Estelle asks. "If you don't mind sharing..."

"I have something, and two people, to find." Lloyd says, shrugging. "Noishe was simply one of four. After that... I'm going home."

"Why home?" Karol blinks. Lloyd watches him from the corner of an eye, then shrugs.

"I haven't been home in fifteen years?" Lloyd shrugs again at their blinks.

"What about your mother?" Estelle asks. "Your parents? You've had no contact?"

"Mom's been dead for nearly 32 years." Lloyd says conversationally. "And my dad's one of the two people I'm looking for. That's all my family is."

"Oh... I'm sorry." Estelle blinks.

"No need. I know how and why she died... and I've had plenty of time to get over it." Lloyd shrugged. "Let me think on it. Maybe I'll join, maybe I won't. Point for joining is to wave it in Alexei's face that there's no way he's getting me to join up, so that's ahead right now." Lloyd smirked at Estelle's astonished expression, before the princess looked down.

"Then.. I..."

"Okay, let's call it a day for now." Yuri cuts her off.

"I'll take night watch." Lloyd waves, getting up and picking a new seat.

"Yeah. I almost forgot how sore I am." Karol agrees that it's time to sleep.

* * *

"I thought of a name! The Super Ultra Courageous Braves!" Karol cries out. Everyone in camp turned to look at the new guild leader and his second.

"Ha ha ha." Yuri laughs a little. "That sounds like a name Captain Karol would come up with, definitely. Let's go with that, then."

"Aw, not Team Misfit?" Lloyd asks, setting some wood down next to their fire.

"Why Team Misfit?" Karol frowns at Lloyd.

"Well, you have Yuri, Mr. Ex-Knight. You, Mr. I've Been In Most Of The Guilds. Judith, Ms Kritya Who Likes To Fight Rather Than Read Or Study Lots of Books." Lloyd points out, smirking a little. "And you might have me, a possibly certified crazy person. The only way this guild could be more mismatched is if we had Raven, Flynn, and Rita join up at the same time."

"Crazy person?" Karol narrows his eyes at Lloyd.

"I talk to things." Lloyd shrugs. "Animals, mostly. And nothing, sometimes."

"I still like my name better." Karol says.

"Your guild." Lloyd grins a little, going to his seat.

* * *

After a very enlightening talk with the Krityan lady of the party, Yuri wandered over to where Lloyd was sitting with his large dog... thing. Noishe whined at him, and so Lloyd glanced over his shoulder.

"Hullo." Lloyd waves a little.

"... Yeah, hello." Yuri stands next to him. "Any particular reason you wouldn't want to join? If you don't mind sharing." Yuri adds after a moment of silence from Lloyd.

"It would... rip a hole, right? If I joined, then left when I got what I need to get done, done?" Lloyd says, carving a piece of wood. "I don't plan on staying, and joining a guild, unless you plan to get kicked out, has a sort of permanent feel to it." There's a sudden wry note to Lloyd's voice. "And I'm only temporary."

"How soon do you think you'd finish?" Yuri asks, idly watching Lloyd work.

"I don't know. I haven't searched this continent very well yet, and none of the others than the continent with Zaiphas on it. I only managed to get to the Blade Drifts there once, and that wasn't a very long stay..." Lloyd knocked shavings off his lap. "Depends on how easily I can find what I need to find."

"Any descriptions so we can help?"

"A man with red hair, and red eyes." Lloyd shrugs. "And another man with blue hair, and teal eyes. They look only a bit older than me." Yuri got a grin from Lloyd before another comment. "And a four armed, blonde man with purple legs, a floating ring of arrowheads, two spears and a pair of swords."

"Now you're talking." Yuri smirks, knocking on his shoulder. "... like a crazy man."

"Yeah, well." Lloyd shrugs. "Can't help what I need to find, now can I?" Lloyd turned back to carving. "He's not the strangest thing I've seen."

"Right." Yuri rolled his shoulders. "Wake Repede for Graveyard shift. He wants to take watch."

"Right." Lloyd waves him off.

* * *

"I hope we can find some work to do now that we've made our guild." Karol says, knocking crumbs off from breakfast.

"Easy, tiger." Yuri smirks at him. "...So, Estelle? What are you gonna do?" Estelle looked down, then nodded and looked to Yuri.

"I want to go looking for that talking monster." Estelle says. "If it was me he was after, I want to find out why."

"Don't feel like you'll be able to rest easy till you find out, huh?" Yuri asks.

"But... how will you do that?" Karol asks. "How can you look for a monster if you have no idea where it is?"

"I thought you were in charge of all the monster-related information." Yuri glances at Karol.

"Don't ask me!" Karol says. "Even I'd never seen anything like that before."

"You ask people." Lloyd smirks a little. "Just ask in towns toward the way it flew, 'hey, did anyone see a big glowing bird?'"

"Yeah, but what if no one has?" Karol rubs his head. Judith turns to face the group.

"That was no monster." Judith says. "His name is Phaeroh." Lloyd blinks at her, then looks thoughtful as the others turn to face Judith.

"Do you know about him?" Estelle asks. Judith looks away from the princess.

"I saw him earlier when I was traveling with my friend, and it was my friend who knew his name." Judith explains.

"Why would your friend know the name of something like that?" Karol asks.

"Maybe he used a Magic Lens." Lloyd offers, grinning a little. Karol makes a face at him while Judith looks off.

"Where did you see him?" Estelle tilts her head as she asks.

"It was on the Desier continent in the Sands of Kogorh." Judith explains.

"That's the continent to the southwest of Tolbyccia." Estelle blinks. "The continent of Desier... the desert..."

"You don't just go marching off to a desert because someone saw a monster." Yuri points out.

"He's right, you know." Karol agrees with Yuri.

"Deserts are not fun." Lloyd agrees.

"I wonder if that fairy tale could be..." Estelle mumbles.

"Fairy tale?" Karol questions.

"Something I read at the castle." Estelle says. "A tale about a monster that speaks who lives in the Sands of Kogorh."

"There are always stories like that." Karol says. "Like the one about the monster in the sea who talks to people."

"Or the one about a three headed dragon who lectures you when you fail to battle against it well." Lloyd adds in. When everyone gave him a confused look, he tilted his head. "Wait, no. That happened."

"..." Karol gives Lloyd a narrow eyed look. "You're right, you're crazy."

"Runs in the family." Lloyd smirks at him.

"I think you've got it backwards." Judith says.

"Backwards?" Karol blinks.

"Such creatures do exist, but they simply become the stuff of legend." Judith explains.

"It's like the saying 'where there's smoke, there's fire'." Estelle understands, and Judith nods.

"Yeah but..." Karol frowns. "Are you thinking of going all the way to a place like that alone, Estelle?"

"Huh?" Estelle blinks, shaking her head a little. "Well, I..."

"If we don't keep up this little bodyguard operation, she'll really march off on her own." Yuri notes, then glances down at Karol. "What do you think? Let's take this as our first guild assignment."

"Hey, you're right!" Karol grins. "We'd be breaking our own laws if we let her go alone."

"That's right." Judith smiles.

"...But, if this is a real job, we'll have to charge Estelle our fee." Karol frowns, looking down.

"We don't need to worry about something like money, right?" Yuri blinks.

"Nope, no exceptions." Karol shakes a finger at Yuri, and Lloyd snickers while he makes a lunch they can just pull out and eat. "Money is a necessity for running a guild."

"Um... I'm afraid I'm a bit short on funds at the moment..." Estelle says.

"In that case, why don't we just figure something out later?" Judith asks.

"How about, charge on completion?" Lloyd asks, packing up. "In other cases, apply a small fee for a request taken, then the full fee after completion, unless it's something that feels especially dangerous and then half fee ahead, half fee after." Noishe whines in agreement.

"That could work." Karol blinks. "Have you been in a guild before?"

"Nope." Lloyd shrugs. "I just listen a lot."

"Surprising for a loud guy." Yuri smirks.

"Ha ha ha." Lloyd false laughs.

"I'll pay the fee, I promise." Estelle says. "So let's all go together."

"Okay, looks like that settles it." Yuri smirks.

"This way we can all continue the journey..." Estelle watches some clouds move by.

"Say, Lloyd, do you have an answer yet?" Yuri glances at the twinblade.

"Eh?" Lloyd blinks from scratching Noishe. "No, not yet. I'm still thinking."

"All right, Super Ultra Courageous Braves, fall out!" Karol raises a fist and then drops it. Estelle blinks, startled from her cloud watching.

"Wh-what is that?" Lloyd's trying not to laugh at Estelle's expression.

"Huh?" Karol blinks at her. "That's our guild's name!"

"We can't go with that!" Estelle insists. "We need something easy to say that has a real snap to it!"

"Oh, really?" Karol blinks. "Well..."

"I still think Team Misfit works." Lloyd offers.

"I don't." Karol shoots down Lloyd's idea, looking down while thinking.

"How about something like..." Estelle glanced across them all. "Brave Vesperia?" Karol glanced up at her. "It's the star that gives off the brightest light in the night sky..." Estelle explains.

"Hmm. I like that star." Lloyd nods, smiling a little.

"The brightest star." Karol repeats. "Cool!"

"Brave Vesperia..." Yuri repeats it. "Hmm. I like it. Let's stick with that."

"Okay! That settles it!" Karol does a little happy dance. "Let's get to Torim Harbor and charter a boat! We're off on an ocean voyage to the continent of Desier!"

"Didn't you want to take a break at Heliord?" Yuri reminds Karol with a smirk.

"Aw, who needs it?" Karol asks.

"Either way, we can't get to Torim without passing through Heliord." Yuri points out.

"And I didn't refill our supplies in Dahngrest." Lloyd says, checking his pack. "We need to stop and buy some anyway."

"I'd also like to see how they've been doing since the Blastia went out of control." Estelle says.

"Yeah, that was pretty crazy." Yuri comments, although when he said crazy he was looking at Lloyd. The twinblade noticed.

"Hey, I thought it would work!" Lloyd defends himself. Judith tilted her head, but said nothing.

"All right, we'll just stop in for a quick look around the city." Karol says.

"Okay." Estelle smiles.

"So first to Heliord, then from Torim to Desier by boat." Yuri says.

"Okay, I'll try again..." Karol says, raising his fist. "Brave Vesperia, fall out!" Repede barks as punctuation, and Noishe adds his voice in a howl.

* * *

Yay :D

And because people don't seem to read the first author notes, i repeat down here.

I need assassination ideas. I've got 'Barfight turns deadly', 'sneak in and kill', 'bait and kill', 'sniping', and a 'poison' idea or two.

More? Please?


	19. Lift

Warning for this chapter - Cumore. Because Cumore requires his own warning.

* * *

Like always, it's night when they reach town.

"Oh my..." Estelle looks about. "Doesn't the city seem less busy than before?" Lloyd's absently rubbing the back of his head with his left hand, his right hand in Noishe's fur.

"Yeah." Yuri agrees with Estelle, looking about a little as well. "This place has gotten a lot more... ghost-towny."

"You don't think that rumor's true, do you?" Karol turned back to face the elder party members.

"Which one?" Lloyd drawls, tilting his head as he watches the too-quiet city.

"People suddenly vanishing." Yuri says, before glancing at Karol, smirking a little. "That one?"

"Maybe it's not just a rumor after all." Judith crosses her arms, and Noishe quietly whines his agreement. Yuri turns to face the Krityan lancer, then smirks as he watches Estelle, who hadn't turned to face into their little group.

"She has to do something about it." He predicts. Estelle twitches a little, like she was shocked from her thoughts.

"What do you mean?" She turns so that they're all standing in a loose pentagon, Repede off between Judith and Yuri, and Noishe between Lloyd and Karol.

"You can see it on her face." Judith remarks, turning further away from the princess.

"If that's the case, we should go to the inn and have a strategy meeting first." Karol says. "After all, we need to go check on the Blastia too."

"And restock." Lloyd says, scratching behind Noishe's ears.

"Yeah." Yuri scratched Repede's ears, not letting the warrior canine get left out. "And it's not like Estelle can just let things go..."

"You can't just ignore people's problems, can you?" Estelle asks.

"I know, I know." Yuri smirks.

"So then, let's go. To the inn!" Karol cheers, and darts off.

"We need anything other than basic supplies?" Lloyd asks, looking amused. At the negative head shakes, he heads at a slower pace toward the item-shop. Which so happened to be in the inn.

* * *

Lloyd glanced over his shoulder as the door opened, smiling a little as Estelle, Yuri, Repede, and Judith entered the building that served as inn and shop.

"See anything I missed or we have covered?" Lloyd indicated the items on the counter before him, and Estelle pointed out that even though he didn't eat tomatoes, there were some things they liked that needed them. The eldest male made a face as he added tomatoes to his purchase.

* * *

The next morning had everyone cheerful and fed and dry, although Lloyd still had half a mug of hot chocolate.

"Well, shall we have a look about the town?" Estelle asks them.

"We also need to have a look at the Blastia that went berserk last time." Karol reminds the princess cheerfully.

"And I've refilled our pockets, so." Lloyd shrugged, turning to head back out with a strange pack over his shoulder.

"What's that?" Estelle heads up to the twinblade, who glanced back at her after he whistled.

"They're packs. I can put these on Noishe, so he can carry some our stuff. Some extra clothes, dried meat for him." Lloyd eyed his green and white pet as he came bounding over. "And he knows better than to let it all loose, or to eat without us, too." Yuri watched as Lloyd convinced Noishe to 'carry his weight in the party, since he wasn't going to fight'. The packs settled about the large 'dog's shoulders, and looked a bit like saddlebags. The Blastia was their first stop, Karol racing ahead to it.

"It seems like the area has returned to normal." Estelle smiles in relief that everything seemed fine.

"Yeah." Karol tilted his head back to try to see the tip of the large pillar like Blastia. "Doesn't look like it's gone berserk since then." Repede turned behind Yuri to watch the other road into the plaza.

"Hey, it's those guys we met at Nor Harbor." Yuri notices the boy and woman first, and so the rest turn to them. Lloyd was distantly uneasy looking.

"Miss Estelle!" Pauly heads over first, rushing over to the kneeling Estelle, the princess having dropped to his level.

"How have you been?" Estelle asks the pair from Nor Harbor as Pauly's mother followed. While Pauly's head shifted degrees of tilt, like the child was thinking, Judith moved to stand near them.

"Who is this?" Judith asks.

"We helped these people out at Nor Harbor." Karol explains to the Krityan.

"We can't thank you enough for all you've done for us." Pauly's mother bows a little to Estelle. Estelle blinks, noticing someone missing.

"Where is your father?" the princess asks. Pauly's head falls forward as he slouches despairingly.

"I haven't seen Teagle – My husband – for the past three days..." Pauly's mother confides.

"It sounds like that rumor might be true..." Karol turned to tell Yuri. Yuri nodded, then looked back at the pair from the other continent.

"Don't you have any hunches?" Yuri asks. Lloyd was standing off to the side, his eyes nearly closed as he focused on something else.

"Yes..." Pauly's mother whispered. "The night before he disappeared, he talked again about working to become a noble..."

"Become a noble?" Estelle blinked. "What do you mean?"

"When this city is finally completed, we will be able to live here as members of the nobility." Pauly's mother sounded like she was repeating something she heard. Lloyd's eyes went fully open, with a confused frown.

"That's possible?" Lloyd asks.

"It doesn't sound right." Estelle doesn't say that it is, or isn't, before straightening a little into her recitation stance. "'The rank of nobility is reserved for whose service has earned the emperor's confidence'."

"B-but, Sir Cumore gave his word to us! He said we would be welcomed as nobles!"

"Cumore..." Estelle's eyes closed for a fraction of a second as she thought. "From the Imperial Knights?"

"Yes. He is acting as the current magistrate of the city."

"That ratwiggle's word isn't worth much." Startled head's turned to Lloyd, who looked at them, then gave a smirk-like grin. "No offense to the ratwiggles."

Yuri coughed, looking about. "And I'll bet he's running this place as well as a ratwiggle to boot."

"That is strange, though." Karol mutters. "I mean, the imperial throne is empty and all."

"But then..." Pauly's mother deflated a little. "Then why on earth have we been working this hard? And what about Teagle?"

"Is Father not coming back...?" Pauly asks. Yuri caught Lloyd's wince, then the look that said 'anything gets in my way gets in trouble.'

"Hey, Yuri..." Estelle starts to ask. Yuri watches her for a moment when the princess trails off.

"You're gonna sk me why we don't take this on as a guild, right?" Yuri asks, then turns to Karol. Karol blinks and looks at the ex-knight.

"I promise to take care of her fee when I pay my own." Estelle says. Karol looks between the princess and his guildsman.

"And if you don't take it, I'll just find his dad." Lloyd's voice less cheery than usual, but wasn't too much different. Yuri had the feeling that the twinblade was faking being all right.

"Well.. Okay, that's fine." Karol agrees to help the pair.

"What?" Pauly's mom blinks. "But I..."

"So this means our next job is finding a missing person." Judith crossed in front of Estelle to stand between the Guildmaster and the princess, Lloyd stepping between Karol and Yuri with his arms crossed.

"And if Cumore's up to his usual stunts, we'll just have to slap him around till he stops." Yuri smirks. Karol starts, and Lloyd grins widely.

"Right. The Knights do exist for the protection of the people, after all." Estelle agrees with Yuri's plan of violence, for once.

"I've got slapsticks." Lloyd pats the hilts at his sides.

"L-let's just make sure we're careful." Karol cautions them. "The Knights could squash a little guild like us if we get on their bad side."

"As you wish." Yuri says, watching Karol.

"We'll find your father, I promise." Estelle turns to Pauly. "Just wait right here."

"By 'right here', she means safely in town." Lloyd translates for the mother and child pair.

"Well, that's that. We'll take the job." Yuri says.

"Thank you." Pauly's mother bows a little at them all in general. "Thank you so much!"

"All right, let's go find him." Yuri says, looking about.

"There's something very suspicious about that area over there." Judith points out the guarded lift behind Yuri, Lloyd, Repede and Noishe.

"Yeah." Yuri takes a casual look over his shoulder. "Even more so because it's marked off-limits."

"I wonder if there's some way we could get in..." Estelle muses.

"We have option one, knock the guy down the lift." Lloyd drawls quietly. "Option two, stun the guy with magic, option three, talk the guy down, and option four, distract the guard. Or, we could try option five, which is find another way around. I've rarely gotten to do option five."

"Careful guys. Remember? Careful..." Karol doesn't quite whine it, but it's quiet and almost scared all the same.

"Captain Karol vetoes option One and Two." Yuri notes aloud. "This leaves Option Three, Four, and Five. And going down the list..." Yuri turned and walked toward the Lift. As he looked down it, the platform for riding not up top, the knight stirred.

"Hey! You there! No loitering allowed!" Yuri's glance over told him he might be getting a halberd in his face in a moment. "Now, move along!" So Yuri turned to actually talk with the man.

"I'd like to pass, if I could." Yuri told the knight. Lloyd looked at the rest of the party, and shrugged, heading to the other side of the Blastia from the knight and former knight. Estelle, Karol and Judith followed Noishe, and Repede waited a moment before doing the same. Pauly and his mother headed off to where they could be out of the way.

"Sorry, no can do, buddy." The knight told Yuri. "The laborers camp ahead is too dangerous." Yuri snorted, glancing back at the lift once more, before turning back about and walking to their loose gather on the other side of the Blastia.

"Thank goodness..." Karol almost deflated with relief. "Knowing you, Yuri, I thought for sure you'd try to force your way through..."

"Well, 'proceed with caution' and all that. Boss's orders, y'know." Yuri shrugs a little.

"But how should we get by the guard?" Estelle asks.

"We're down to Option Four and Five, unless Karol's fine with trying One or Two." Lloyd says, grinning. "I think that Four and Five in combination would work."

"I really think that forcing our way through, or option one, would be the simplest and most effective way in." Judith muses.

"No, I won't allow it!" Karol insists. "All we need to do is draw the guard away from his post. Kinda like option Four."

"But how will we do that?" Estelle asks, turning to Karol. Karol blinked in thought for a moment.

"...Maybe by, y'know, seducing him with feminine wiles?" Karol's voice came out small.

"Well then..." Yuri smirked as he eyed the other four humanoids. Lloyd was clearly out, a little too strong and broad framed. Karol wasn't, he was still young enough to cross-dress easily. Estelle and Judith were both girls, which made them the better choices automatically. Although, of the two, Judith's overall shape was better. Before Yuri could open his mouth to pick the Krityan, Lloyd smirked.

"I think Yuri could do it." Yuri wasn't the only one gaping at Lloyd for that comment.

"What the hell! No way!" Yuri protested the crazy Twinblade's idea.

"Why do you say that, Lloyd?" Estelle blinks between the former knight and the twinblade.

"'Cause I think Yuri could act it out." Lloyd said, smirking. There was a pause as everyone else stared at him yet. "And because it would be hilarious."

"Hell no." Yuri said, refusing. "Why don't you?"

"Because my hair's not long enough." Lloyd retorts without missing a beat. "And because if you squint, and look at Yuri from nearly behind, he could be a girl."

"I think we could dress him up." Judith leaned forward and studied Yuri. "A little make up, some socks, no one will know."

"What's this about socks?" Karol peered at Yuri the same way.

"I think I know what he can wear, too!" Estelle had a slightly scary gleam to her eyes.

"...Lloyd." Yuri looked at the smirking twinblade as Judith and Estelle grabbed onto his arms. "Don't sleep. I'm going to get you."

* * *

"...How did you get me into this?" Yuri asked, maintaining his balance with some concentration.

"Equal parts flattery, bribery, and threatening." Judith smiles at him. It had taken the three humanoids, and the shopkeeper, two hours to wheedle, threaten, bribe and ego-stroke Yuri into, well, drag. A long sleeved shirt, the sleeves long and wide enough to cover his hands down to his knuckles, that was frilled over his sock-induced chest, and stopped shortly after. Shin toned stockings covered his legs from under a mid-thigh skirt, and the high-heels were painfully high. The girls had done his hair ... mostly up, and left it curling and dangling and wavy half on his face. It hid his stronger jaw, and most of the resemblance between Yuri-the-woman and Yuri-the-former-knight. "Try going for an alto."

"A what?" Yuri deadpans.

"It's a voice tone." Lloyd points out with a smirk. "Soprano, alto, tenor, baritone. Soprano and alto are usually female tones, tenor and baritone are usually male."

"It's usually used for singing." Estelle reaches over and touches up Yuri's make-up, ignoring the slight twitch this caused. She and Judith had a field day, powdering his face, a bit of blush about his cheeks and nose, a little smoky purple eye-shadow, and red lipstick. Yuri just wanted the stuff off his face, but every time he made a face or rubbed a little at it, Estelle would come right over and admonished him, then put more on his face. "When an adult male sings soprano, it's usually called falsetto."

"That Duke character is an example of a baritone. A low one." Lloyd says, his face twitching like he's trying not to laugh. "You're more a mid-range baritone, and I'm kinda right between tenor and baritone."

"What about me?" Karol blinks at them.

"You haven't grown up yet." Judith smiles a little as she loosens bits of Yuri's hair, and let more frame his face.

"You're still a child. You'd be a soprano." Lloyd says. "When you grow up, who knows? In any case, Yuri, you'd want to pitch about... here." Lloyd's voice rose in pitch a bit.

"..." Yuri stared at the twinblade, who stared back with a smirk. "You owe me."

"Three favors, reasonable ones, and you don't try killing me in my sleep." Lloyd said, offering it like a bargain.

"Five. And agreed on the sleep. But you cook for a week." Yuri crossed his arms.

"Four, I cook for a week, and you don't attack me in my sleep." Lloyd counters. "I reserve one chicken, and expect you to listen and understand if something's not in my abilities, making it count as nothing. You still get that favor."

"Done."

* * *

Brave Vesperia Minus Yuri And Add Lloyd, moved behind and to the right of the Blastia. Yuri wanders close to the guard, manages the heels well enough to walk with a sway.

"Hey, you there." The guard didn't really look at the cross dressing knight. "No loitering." Yuri frowned for a second. He was going to have to change that.

"Who, me?" Yuri threw his voice high like he'd been instructed, and threw in battering of his eyelashes. It worked, by the noise the guard made.

"Uh..." The guard took a moment to react. "Yes, it's dangerous around the camp area."

"Oh, but I love a bit of danger." Yuri eyes the guard, smirking a little, and walks closer, sway like. "Don't you?" Yuri leaned against the knight, trailing his fingers in a circle about the other man's chest. Although he was wearing a helmet, Yuri was pretty sure the man's face was beat red.

"Well, I.." the man shook himself a little. "I've got a girl back home..." Yuri grinned up at him from his leaning on the knight's shoulder.

"Oh, she'll never know. Now..." Yuri pressed just up against him enough that it felt like a woman pressing against armor, and whispered near the knights ear. "How about a little... danger? Just you and me?" The guard jerked a little.

"Al-alright." The knight made a slight grab for him, and Yuri evaded him, a sway to his hips.

"This way~!" Yuri called back to him, and the knight followed like an obedient puppy. No offense to Repede. The knight followed Yuri behind the Blastia, and right into a high-heeled foot aimed at his crotch. The man dropped with a whimper, and then Lloyd casually kicked him in the kidneys, looking thoroughly amused.

And after that mentally scaring interaction, Brave Vesperia and hangers on had an unconscious knight.

"See? Yuri can do it." Lloyd nods, struggling with a heavily amused smirk. Karol's expression was somewhere close to disturbed, but amused, while Judith's gave off barely anything as usual, and Estelle's was mostly hidden behind her hand.

"I _refuse_ to ever do this again." Yuri says, pulling pins out of his hair. It stayed mostly up. "What did you do to me?" The former knight complained.

"Gel. It keeps your hair up." Judith smiles a little.

"I'm going to change. And clean my face." Yuri pulls his shoes and the stockings off, and then booked it back to the inn before anyone else could see him. The moment he was out of sight, Lloyd laughed.

"... He's going to make you pay for that." Karol notes, smiling also. Yuri was a fast changer, evidently, and returned with a wet cloth as he removed make-up.

"All right, on to the next step." Judith smiled, holding the helmet.

"Huh... what?" Karol blinks.

"It should be easier to go in if you dress like a knight." Judith half turns toward Yuri, who rubbed the last of the make-up off his face. Screw attacking Lloyd in his sleep, he was going to put make up on him. Stuff was hard to get off!

"Who, me?" Yuri was torn between a smirk and a glower.

"Karol or Lloyd would work just as well." Judith comments.

"Dressing up once a day is enough for me." Yuri refuses. "Lloyd, you wear the knight uniform. Favor number one."

"Done." Lloyd was grimacing as he said it, taking the helmet from Judith.

"Aw, you took it." Yuri made a slight face at him.

"I'm going to save that chicken for something you come up with that's completely in the opposite direction of insane that I am." Lloyd put the armor on over his own clothes. The armor fit, in a way. He was a bit tall and thin for the coat, but the metal parts fit well enough.

"I can't see." Lloyd reports that the helm sucks.

"Hey!" A knight ran up to them, and Lloyd crossed his arms to turn his helmed head in his direction. "Quit goofing off over there!"

"Sorry, I was told that my shift hadn't started yet." Lloyd retorts easily.

"Change in circumstance." The knight grabs onto Lloyd's upper arm. "Get to your post before things get even more out of hand!"

"Hey, if all this crazy happened before my shift, it's in no way my fault." Lloyd pulls his arm from the man's grasp but follows the knight anyway. "What the ..hell happened?" His slight hitch on 'hell' was gone unnoticed.

"The mage we captured is running wild!" The knights words reach the rest of them. "Hurry up!"

"... We should follow him to see what's up." Yuri shrugs. "He's handling himself, but, 'out of hand'...?" They opened the door to the knights headquarters to find the air more or less full of smoke. The open door cleared it, and they found Rita held upside down by a twinblade knight. Rita wasn't pleased by this arrangement, and was trying to kick him, or hit his side while keeping her tunic-shirt covering. The red glowing runes that sprung up from her anger were dispelled by a tap on her forehead.

"You going to stop trying to fry me yet?" The helm muffled and made Lloyd's voice echoey.

"Let me go, you stupid knight!" Rita flailed about, then spotted who had just come in. "Estelle? What are you doing here...?"

"Was it you causing all that racket in here?" Yuri asks, amused.

"Lloyd, you can let her down." Karol pipes up.

"Huh? Lloyd?" Rita was set down, and Lloyd shoved the helm off carelessly.

"Yeah. What I was trying to tell you." Lloyd rolls his shoulders.

"You guys..." Rita blinks at them, then kicked Lloyd in the leg, right in the armor's gap.

"Oi!" Lloyd jumped. "What was that for!"

"For holding me upside down!"

"You didn't listen to me! I told you, I was Lloyd! What did you want me to do, knock you out?" Lloyd retorts.

"All right, you two, let's head outside before your shouting wakes them back up." Yuri turns to head to the door, and hears Rita kick one of the stirring knights hard.

"So, what are you doing in a place like this?" Estelle asks Rita as they stop outside. Rita turns away from the princess while Lloyd shucked the knight armor, inspected it, then put it in his pack.

"I thought I'd check out the Blastia here, before investigating the Aer krene." Rita explained.

"And you wound up biting off a little more than you could chew." Yuri notes. "Just like always." Rita didn't reply, her head dipping down a little to show that Yuri's words hit the target.

"But what was it you got involved in?" Estelle asks.

"They sneaked the Blastia into the labor camp at night. I mean, that's already pretty shady." Rita mutters.

"Don't tell me you were sneaking around investigating it when you got caught." Yuri crosses his arms. Rita shook her head, turning back to face them.

"Of course not. I was very stealthy about it." The mage insists. "And What happened to your hair?"

"...and then you got caught." Karol points out. Yuri refused to answer the mage, grumbling to himself and pulling at his stiffened hair.

"Well, I couldn't just sit around while they were trying to do something weird with the Blastia." Rita says.

"Weird with the Blastia?" Lloyd repeats, frowning a little.

"The people here have been threatened by the Knights and are being made to work." Rita continues.

"I bet Teagle's down there, too." Karol says, turning toward Yuri.

"We cannot allow this to go on." Estelle insists.

"And what about this Blastia you saw?" Yuri asks Rita.

"It was a hoplon Blastia." Rita says. "It looks like they're gathering them up for a war."

"They wouldn't..." Karol trailed off before his voice rose with a little panic. "You don't think they're planning on attacking Dahngrest again?"

"But why?" Estelle asks the air. "After they've just set up the friendship agreement..."

"Maybe not all the knights are of a mind with Flynn and Ioder?" Lloyd offers, shifting in a way that somehow made them feel he was ready to slice things down.

"Cumore." Yuri agrees. "It's gotta be him. There's no way he intends to keep any promises he made to the guilds."

"Do you know him, Yuri?" Karol blinks.

"You met him once, at Caer Bocram." Yuri reminds him. Karol tilted his head up as he thought.

"Ah, you mean the guy with the creepy voice." Karol remembers.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums him up." Lloyd nods. "Sounds like he hasn't changed for the better. And with our last meeting, didn't look like it either."

"You know him?" Karol repeats his question.

"I served in a brigade with him. Not directly part of a brigade, I was an auxiliary unit, basically, but..." Lloyd shrugged as eyes turned to him. "Just wanted to see if he was the same before I told you he was an irredeemable asshat. And I've the gut feeling he still is." Estelle and Karol mouthed Lloyd's insult silently, before Judith stepped forward.

"I don't mind discussing things here, but aren't we forgetting something?" Judith verbally prods them back onto track. Cue group wide blink.

"That's right!" Karol cries out. "We've got to rescue Teagle and the others!"

"Then we'll put an end to that forced labor, get rid of all the Blastia they're gathering..." Estelle blinked. "And, um..."

"You can't just get rid of the Blastia. They need to be recovered and taken care of." Rita points out.

"Speaking of recovered..." Lloyd rubs the back of his neck as he pulls a sack out of his pack. "We... '**recovered**' several Blastia from Ragou's ship." Everyone turned to face him as he shook the sack a little. "And I've still got them." He frowns a little pensively at them. "So, what am I to do with these?"

"We could have the mages in Aspio come and pick them up." Estelle says. "We can leave our collected Blastia with the Blastia in the camp."

"Good with me." Lloyd shrugs, pocketing the sack of Blastia again.

"Wait." Karol looked between them all. "We're being careful, right...?"

"But..." Estelle half-protested.

"One thing at a time." Yuri agrees with his Guildmaster again.

"R-right." Estelle murmurs.

"Okay, then let's get back to our original plan and head down." Karol steers them back to their job.

"Okay." Estelle says. They didn't take more than four paces back into the town square before Lloyd stiffened, and Noishe bounded off.

"Hide..!" Rita hisses, before darting behind the Blastia. Not a moment too soon, as they peeked and saw, for Cumore and a man in a blue suit with a yellow cravat (I think that's what it's called...) approached.

"Ah, milord." The man had brown-ish hair that was kept short, but for a spiral off to the right corner, and a strange accent. Lloyd frowned speculatively at his back. "Are you sure you shouldn't be going to the Sands of Kogorh, now, Sir?" Cumore snorts.

"I don't have to pay attention to Alexei's orders." Cumore announces in a drawl.

"Actually, you do." Lloyd mutters just loud enough for Yuri to hear, and Yuri was furthest from the twinblade. "Considering he's your boss. Me, on the other hand, I don't." Karol elbows him in the side, because Cumore had kept talking.

"Using the money and weapons I have, everything will soon be within my reach." Cumore continues.

"Except for a girlfriend." Lloyd comments. "Although, in that outfit, you might be looking for a boyfriend."

"And I hope you'll remember to appreciate the work Leviathan's Claw has done for you." Cumore's suited companion says in his thick accent.

"And I like your accent." Lloyd mutters.

"Yes, you will be taken care of, Yeager." Cumore drawls. Lloyd's eyebrows go together, but before he can add more commentary, Rita kicks his leg.

"We don't need your commentary on life." Rita hisses.

"You'll take those weapons I sold you, and attack the Union – BOOM!" There was a little flick of his hands up into the air with the 'boom' comment from this Yeager.

"Heh." Cumore laughs a little. "I'm afraid I have my sights set on loftier things than the Union."

"I like how they're saying this all right in front of us." Lloyd starts his commentary again. "I mean, I know no one's going to listen to us, but they're telling us everything, more or less directly."

"Ignoring the Don is a big no-no." Yeager says, strangely jovial. "He is wonderful guy, ja? Don't go forgetting that." Except for that last sentence, which was serious.

"Do you think that Yeager has mood swings?" Lloyd mutters. Rita rolls her eyes and knocks his leg again.

"My my." Cumore watches Yeager from the corner of his eye. "It almost sounds as if you respect the man."

"He should." Lloyd mutters, absently rubbing his leg.

"Respect him I do, but Leviathan's Claw always gets the job done." Yeager says simply.

"Oh ho ho ..." Cumore's laugh gives them small shudders. "Such dedication. That's just what I like about you."

"Cumore's definitely after a boyfriend." Lloyd mutters. "Run, Yeager, run." Rita kicks him again.

"Don't worry though." Cumore tilts his head back to watch the sky. "You are looking at the future Commandant of the Imperial Knights. That fool Alexei, telling me to watch the Union while he signs friendship treaties with them." The pink and purple clad knight's voice took a turn for irritated. Yeager looked in the opposite direction.

"Yeah! You tell 'im!" Yeager cheered.

"If it were me, I'd crush them in the blink of an eye with your lovely weapons!" Cumore continued, as the lift dropped down. "The Union can't possibly hope to stop me." Rita led the group out from behind the Blastia as the knight and guildsman dropped away. Yeager's laughter echoed back up.

"Ja, ja..."

"Hey, that guy with the weird hair looked over here and laughed." Rita reports.

"He definitely spotted us all right." Yuri notes.

"So he thinks we're funny, does he...?" Rita mutters sourly.

"Man, it's always the same thing with these idiots." Yuri sighs, before straightening. "So now we know there's a bunch of people being kept down there."

"Yeah." Rita nods.

"All right. Let's go free them from the idiots." Yuri watches the lift return.

"I knew a Yeager." Lloyd says suddenly, frowning at the lift.

"Was it that Yeager?" Karol blinks.

"See, that's the problem. I don't know." Lloyd shrugs. "I mean, the back of his head looked like the Yeager I knew, but the voice? Not so much."

"Well, you can find out later." Yuri paused. "... was he a friend?"

"... Acquaintance. Got along better with him than Cumore, but didn't know him for long. Got along better with his captain." Lloyd shrugs. "But if it comes down to blows, lemme whack him first. Wanna see if he is or not." Lloyd steps onto the lift.

"You're going to see if he's the same person by attacking him?" Karol frowns worriedly.

"Yep." Lloyd grins. "You can fake faces and clothes, but it's hard to completely copy someone's fighting style."

"... So to make sure he's not your friend, you're going to try to wipe the floor with him?" Rita follows Karol onto the lift.

"... More or less."

"... What if he is your friend?" Estelle blinks, joining them on the lift. Repede moved between legs and sat down, and Judith followed.

"Then I'll apologize at a later date." Lloyd shrugs.

"... Remind me not to go missing on you." Yuri notes as he steps on, then the lift went down.

* * *

Yes, I am a cruel, cruel person.

Yuri wishes to maim me.

Thank you **Kichi Hisaki** for the script of the seduction scene and the description of his outfit and make-up :D

Definitely better than putting him in Aeris/Aerith's outfits.


	20. Camp

FrozenInFlight and _the Cruxis _interupt your program to give you this special announcement.

**JUST TO LET YOU ALL KNOW**

**If you read the PREVIOUS CHAPTER**

**WITH_OUT_ a seduction scene**

**THERE IS A _SEDUCTION SCENE _NOW**

**Thank you.**

now to your regularly scedualed chapter :D

* * *

They head down a beaten earth path from the lift into a canvas and wood tent city, and stop as they see a blue suit back.

"Hmm?" Judith muses. "Look who's here."

"And a group of those red eyes...!" Estelle notices who are standing before Yeager; a trio of Red Eyes.

"Looks like Cumore's become their new client." Yuri says, eyeing the slouched assassins. Yeager was talking to them, and then made a gesture. The three Red Eyes left, as Yeager turned back to the tent.

"Hey, do you think that guy who talks all funny could be the red eyes' boss?" Karol asks.

"It sure looks that way from here." Yuri says.

"They were wearing the same sort of coat, all four." Lloyd says, still frowning thoughtfully, before he started the creeping closer to peer. The group crowded close to the tent, but not too close, peering in between the canvas and the frame. A man in rough clothes coughs inside, then collapses.

"Get to work!" Cumore snaps at him. "No slacking off, you worms!"

"Look, that's..." Karol whispers. "It's Teagle."

"If its money you want, you'll have more than you can use." Cumore shouts. "Now work! Work!" Yuri straightened while the creepy knight was ranting, and started walking around the tent toward the entrance.

"Wait!" Karol hissed. Lloyd grinned. Next the rest, who were still peeping in, knew, Cumore had been hit in the head with a small rock.

"Wh-who?" Cumore spotted the rock tossing ex-knight, who wasn't exactly trying to hide. "Yuri Lowell! What are you doing here?" Lloyd moved into a good spot next to Yuri, and Estelle went between the two swordsmen to stare at Cumore. Cumore double took at the sight of the pinkette princess. "P-princess...?"

"You have no right to call yourself a knight!" Estelle announces. "Brute force is not the way to honor the prestige of the empire. Put down your weapons now. You will also release the people you have tricked into coming down here!"

"This all might be easier if such a naïve little Princess were to simply disappear." Cumore said, twitching. "All of your utopian ramblings make me sick!" Cumore snaps. Lloyd is mocking his expression and mouthing his words.

"That's not the kind of thing someone with delusions of becoming Commandant of the Knights would say." Yuri teases.

"It's you!" Teagle has gotten off the ground, if only to his hands and knees.

"You'll be all right now." Estelle tells the man, completely ignoring Cumore.

"Yeager!" Cumore shouts. "Get rid of them!" Lloyd grabs his blades as Yeager turned to face them, pulling out a crossbow that shifted into a scythe.

"Ja, milord." Yeager's eyes widened to make his face become a little psychopathic with his smirk and accent. Six Red Eyes left the shadows and lined up behind him, three flanking each side. "Nothing personal, you see." Yeager continued, but to the party. "Just business!"

"Hope you're getting' paid," Lloyd drew his blades as the Red Eyes held their weapons up at neck level, Yuri flinging his sheath aside and Karol scrambling for the preferred hilt in his pack. "really good!" Lloyd brought both of his blades down from over his right shoulder, Yeager catching them on his scythe, and combat began. Lloyd knocked Yeager out of his Red Eyes with some fancy sword work that wasn't Artes. Yuri followed, lunging and distracting the red eyes from Lloyd's back, Judith knocking hers into the air with her halberd, and Karol swinging his over heavy weapon about all panicked like. One red eyes learned that just because Rita was a mage, it didn't mean she was helpless. There was a satisfying note of pain to the Red Eyes' gasp as Rita's whip lashed out and shattered a lens. Yuri heard hints of conversation between Lloyd and Yeager, snippets from Lloyd asking for Yeager to remember, and Yeager's half-insane sounding responses denying knowing the people of whom Lloyd spoke. A red eyes distracted Yuri from the fascinating names Lloyd was bringing up to try to remind Yeager of who he was.

The fight went well, Yuri thought as he knocked the last red eyes off his sword, only to hear Estelle shout in panic, and turn. Yeager had knocked Lloyd's left arm up, the blade of the scythe hooking up for the twinblade's torso. Yuri and Karol turned, rushing to attack the Leviathan's Claw guildsman, or master, when Lloyd let go of his right hand ice blade. Wonder of all wonders, the sword vanished, and the Flamberge in his left hand suddenly swirling with violet, doubling in size. Yeager faltered as Lloyd's fist flew and slammed into his face, the twinblade grabbing onto his coat as he brought his hand back and forcing the scythe wielder's face down as he brought his knee in to introduce Yeager's gut to his spine. Yuri stopped, smirking, as Lloyd's knee flew into Yeager's groin, the man's coughing turning into a cry of pain, before Lloyd punched him in the face again. Yeager staggered back, and Lloyd spun, bringing his left elbow into contact with the scythe-man's jaw, added weight of the violet blade in the hand helping to knock him back two yards at the least. Yeager stayed down for a moment, then got back up.

"I must admit, you're very strong." Yeager says, rubbing his jaw.

"Sir Cumore!" One of the pink and red knights runs up. "It's the Flynn Brigade!"

"Flynn...?" Estelle says, while Yuri rewraps the string for his sheath about his hand and Karol re-bag's his weapon. Where Judith keeps hers is a question best left unanswered.

"Well, send him away!" Cumore orders.

"We tried, but he insists on coming down to perform an inspection." The knight replies.

"That lower quarter lout." Cumore complains. "He simply has no tact!"

"No discretion, says the man in armor that screams 'flaming gay'." Lloyd mutters, resting the violet blade on his shoulder.

"Gauche, Droite." Yeager says, finally standing straight.

"Yes, Yeager." A green haired girl on Yeager's left, a red-orange haired girl to his right. The red orange one seemed to have been the speaker, and going with the first to be named, first to respond, she was Gauche.

"This is our time to shine." The green haired girl says, and she would be Droite. They were more or less opposites, although they wore the same shirts, the green haired girl's skirt was black and her garter was on her right, and the orange red haired girl's skirt was white, and her garter on her left.

"I think we better be making with the escape, ja?" Yeager muses, twirling his long lock of hair about a finger. Before Yuri or Lloyd could walk closer, there was a smoke cloud.

"Aah..." Karol throws his hands before his face. "What is this?"

"Please step this way." Gauche says from inside the smoke cloud.

"Move! Move! Time to get a move on!" Droite calls.

"We'll get you next time!" Cumore announces.

"What an original line." Judith sighs.

"You forgot to threaten my little dog too!" Lloyd shouts.

"If we don't follow them they'll...!" Estelle cries, trying to see through the smoke.

"Wait!" Karol shouts. "Our job is to rescue Teagle!"

"But..." Estelle wants to chase down Cumore and the three from Leviathan's Claw.

"I don't know who's job is what, but are we following them or not?" Rita demands. Noishe runs past them, whining and yipping, to which Lloyd laughs. Knights gathered behind them, and more knights showed up. Including a familiar blonde in blue.

"Everyone freeze!" Flynn orders. "That's enough!" Yuri snaps his fingers, smirking.

"Hey, just in time." Yuri cheers.

"...Yuri...?" Flynn almost gapes.

"Can you get up?" Yuri's standing next to Teagle.

"Y-yes..." Teagle gets to his feet slowly.

"Sorry, but it looks like something's come up. You'll have to head back by yourself." Yuri says, turning away from Flynn. "Say hi to the wife and kid for us."

"I will. And thank you." Teagle says.

"So we are going after them." Judith smiles a little as Teagle walked toward the lift up.

"Yeah." Yuri smirks. "I'm sure Flynn has things under control here." Yuri inclined his head a little. "Sound good, Karol?"

"Yeah." Karol nods. "Plus, I think Estelle's going to take off after them any minute." The princess blinked at Karol, then they noticed something. "And Lloyd's already walking off."

"Sorry." Estelle says, as they spotted Lloyd ahead of them with his Noishe.

"Wait up!" Rita snapped at Lloyd, who turned to walk backwards.

"It's you guys who are going slow." Lloyd shrugged, his violet blade on one shoulder. He did slow down, however, and they caught up to the twinblade. Yuri pretended not to hear the shouting of Flynn from behind them.

"So I see you learned something." Yuri called to Lloyd about his attack shift.

"Yeah." Lloyd wriggled his fingers. "Well, my dad pulled that on me once. I wanted to try it out."

"Where'd you get the sword?" Karol eyes the violet blade. The flat of the blade was the violet part, although the center seemed in places to be more indigo than violet, the edges were white and it had a slight aura to it. Three points of red, two slivers on either side of the blade a hand from the hilt, and a red gem on the crosstree where blade and light-gold metal met. The hilt itself was white.

"I've always had this guy." Lloyd blinks for a moment, as if he didn't remember he was carrying a sword about three quarters his height. "Well, not always like when I say I've always had Noishe, but always as in he's been with me the entire time I've been running around with you guys."

"But I've never seen it." Karol frowned a little.

"Well, you have. Kinda." Lloyd brought his right hand to the hilt as well, and with a flicker of violet light, he held a blue sword in his right hand, and a red in his left. Grinning at them as they continued fleeing Heliord, he sheathed his Flamberge and Vorpal Edge. "See?"

"How did- that doesn't make any sense!" Rita shouts, but Lloyd's faster on his feet than she and avoids getting grabbed by the mage.

"Of course it does. The magic power is in both the swords. They turn into the more powerful, bigger sword. Simple." Lloyd spins about to move backwards again, his hair drooping into his face.

"Except, for the question of if the big sword's more powerful, why don't you use it?" Yuri adds.

"It's no fun if everything dies quickly." Lloyd grins at them.

"I agree." Judith smiles.

* * *

The rain stops after they'd been chasing after the Leviathan's Claw and Cumore group, allowing a sunny day through.

"...There's no sign of them..." Estelle sighs. Repede sits while Noishe whines, moving to comfort the princess before Lloyd shoved him.

"Go shake off over there first."

"Looks like they ended up getting away." Rita looks about.

"Where are we, anyway?" Karol asks turning about.

"...A forest in central Tolbyccia." Judith says, and everyone turned to glance at her. Estelle gave Noishe pets. "If I'm right, Torim Harbor is east of here."

"We should probably just get to the harbor rather than going back to Heliord." Yuri says thoughtfully.

"What?" Estelle blinks. "But what about Cumore? Do we just let him go?"

"It's not so much 'letting him go' as 'next time we see him, we grab him'." Lloyd shrugs. "The ratwiggle's found a good hole somewhere."

"I thought the purpose of your journey was to find Phaeroh." Judith comments, crossing behind Estelle to stand to the princess' right, on the other side of Noishe.

"Well, I..." Estelle turned about, and Noishe vacated his place.

"I wasn't aware Brave Vesperia was formed to follow your random whims." Judith commented.

"...I-I'm sorry." Estelle winced a little. "That was never my intention..."

"Aw, she's just telling you to relax." Yuri says. "Besides, Flynn's on the scene, right? You can be sure he'll take care of things."

"Hey." Rita says. "'Phaeroh'? 'Brave Vesperia'? Start explaining." The mage demands.

"Just about ta ask the same questions myself." Yuri blinked at this new voice, although familiar as it was. Raven was there.

"Huh?" Rita blinked. "Wh-what the?"

"I was starting to wonder if anyone else would notice." Lloyd shrugged.

"What's wrong, miss genius mage?" Raven rubbed at his stubble. "Forget me already? It's me, Raven the Great."

"Who the hell do you..." Rita fumes.

"I told ya, Raven the Great..." Raven turns and sighs. "...Man." Raven cleaned the inside of his ear. "Yer a scary little kid, ya know that?"

"So?" Yuri prompted the archer. "What are you up to?"

"With all the stuff ya've been doin', poor Raven got sent all the way out here to keep an eye on ya." Raven complained.

"Why would they do that?" Karol blinks.

"First things first, let's go find an inn at Torim Harbor." Raven straightens. "I'll tell ya everything there. Raven's pretty hungry, ya see..."

"I suppose there's no point in hanging around here." Yuri admits. "Torim Harbor's a good first step."

"Torim harbor, then." Judith asks. "Would that be all right?"

"Yes, of course." Estelle turns about to reply to Judith, and then bows. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be selfish."

"And with you?" Judith smiles a little as she asks Lloyd this. Lloyd blinks at her.

"Is there a reason it shouldn't be all right?" Lloyd asks back, looking rather confused.

"We are sort of dragging you about." Karol points out. "It's not like you're part of the guild."

"If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be here." Lloyd says, shrugging a little. "Let's just leave it at that."

"You aren't going to join the guild?" Karol asks.

"I'm still thinking on it." Lloyd says.

"Okay, let's go." Yuri says.

* * *

And just to make sure!

**If you read the PREVIOUS CHAPTER**

**WITH_OUT_ a seduction scene**

**THERE IS A _SEDUCTION SCENE _NOW**

**Thank you.**

Because i think people don't pay that much attention to the first AN area.


	21. Harbor

SO!

I am NO LONGER RED RINGED.

Which had the side effect of me playing the game, rather than writing.

DO NOT FEAR.

I have two chapters buffer between where i've posted and where I am writting.

I've also been working on YGGFK, and that looks like a funny anacronym, and if I put an R after it it would be awkward XD

And I had something I was working on, on the side, that I'm going to post too.

Well. Funtimes :D

* * *

"I know we haven't been gone for long... but I must say, it still feels good to be back." Karol says as they reach the first set of steps rising to other areas of the harbor. The new guildmaster stood a flanking Repede from the right, Rita standing to his right, and Estelle behind him. Yuri stood behind Rita, and Judith was flanking him from the right, and Lloyd flanked Estelle from the left, Noishe beside him. Raven stood flanking Judith from the right, and his occasional giggle told them why he was walking behind the spear wielder.

"Should I get you pansies some tissues?" Raven teases. "Or can we go to the inn now? I'm sooooo hungry!"

"Have an apple, whiney." Lloyd threw one at Raven's head, the archer catching and returning it.

"All right, all right." Yuri didn't even turn to watch, starting the way up to the inn. Lloyd cheerily crunched into his apple. After paying for their rooms, Lloyd adding the extra so Noishe could stay with him, they ate, and got their ears talked off by Raven. After all the stories of since they'd separated were told, it was dark.

"Huh." Yuri leans between the shelf and the dresser. "So even the Union can't just sit still when it knows a princess of the empire is out on the loose."

"Then the Don knows that I'm a candidate for the imperial throne too." Estelle stands before the shelf on the other side.

"Estelle, no offense, but everyone who is of noble rank or above knows you're a princess. Along with present company, obviously." Lloyd sat backwards in one of the chairs. "The Don is equivalent to the Commandant, if not the Emperor, on the guild's side of things."

"Yup." Exactly what in Lloyd's commentary Raven was agreeing with was left unsaid, but the archer nods at both the princess and the twinblade from his seat on the bed furthest from the door. "That's why he told me ta come keep an eye on ya."

"So you're here to observe her?" Karol asked, seats under the shelf. "That's kind of creepy."

"Really?" Estelle blinks.

"What...?" Karol looks about. "Is it just me?"

"Anyway," Raven deflates a little annoyed-like. "here I finally catch up with ya, and I wind up stickin' my foot in that mess back there. It hasn't been easy for old Raven."

"But why worry so much about Estelle?" Karol asks, glancing up at the princess.

"It's only natural considering the state of things between the empire and the Union." Rita says, the mage on the bed closest to the door.

"Each side is trying to feel the other out." Yuri explains. "The Don just wants to keep track of their movements."

"So, you're all planning on looking for this Phaeroh by going to the sands of Kogorh." Rita doesn't exactly ask for confirmation, but says it.

"Yes." Estelle says.

"Do you know what sort of place a desert is?" Rita asks the princess.

"Well, it's hot, and dry, and they've got a lot of sand there." Karol says.

"That's putting it lightly." Rita tells him. "It's not as easy as all that though."

"The temperature in the day can dehydrate you in a matter of minutes, and at night, freeze you." Lloyd says. "That's not mentioning the poisonous monsters that tend to live in areas like that."

"You've been to the desert?" Estelle asks hopefully.

"I've been to one. Different area, so different monsters, probably." Lloyd shrugs. "And depending on what kind of desert, what I know may be useless."

"Well, our plan is to get to the area together first." Estelle says.

"And then?" Rita pushes.

"Then I guess we'll go around and ask where Phaeroh is." The princess muses.

"...I don't even know where to begin commenting on that plan..." Rita despairs. "So it's not just that you don't want to go back to the castle anymore, right?"

"Um, well.." Estelle hesitates.

"It'd be easier on old Raven if you did, though." Raven says, one eye open. "I'm just sayin'."

"Are you going to pick third or first person?" Lloyd asks suddenly. Everyone stares at him for a moment. "I mean, you refer to yourself as 'Raven' as well as the normal 'I, me, my'."

"Does it bother ya?" Raven wants to know.

"No, not really, it's just curious." Lloyd shrugs. Noishe whines his agreement.

"Well, I'll keep it up then."

"No." Estelle comes to her decision on the topic. "I'm sorry, but I have to know the truth behind Phaeroh's words..."

"Huh." Raven blinks once, both his eyes open. "Well, the Desier continent actually suits me just fine."

"Why is that?" Judith speaks up for once, near the door.

"I've got ta go to Nordopolica for another errand I'm runnin' for the Don." Raven fans himself with an envelope. "Have ta deliver a letter to Belius."

"Whoa, that's pretty important." Karol stands.

"That's the boss of the coliseum and the ruler of Nordopolica, isn't it?" Estelle asks thoughtfully.

"Technically speaking, he's called the Duce." Karol corrects her. Raven throws the letter to Yuri, and the ex-knight catches it neatly out of the air, turning the thick paper over in the lamp-light.

"Do you know what's written in the letter?" Judith asks.

"Hm. It's got somethin' ta do with those monsters that attacked Dahngrest." Raven shrugs a little. "In particular about that Phaeroh chap you all are followin'. The Don thinks Belius will know somethin' about that monster."

"Looks like it just became worth our while to pay this Belius a visit too." Yuri says, still holding the letter up.

"Right." Estelle agrees.

"So if ya don't mind, Raven here'll just tag along with ya." Raven says.

"I'm still hanging about. I'll go too." Lloyd waves a little.

"That's fine." Karol says. "But you'll both have to follow the laws of Brave Vesperia."

"Got it." Raven says, waving his hand a bit. "It's not like I can go joinin' your guild, ya know. Ya understand."

"Why can't you join Brave Vesperia?" Estelle asks.

"It's against the rules for anybody to be in two guilds at the same time." Karol explains. "And I guess technically speaking, you are a member of Altosk."

"Whaddya mean, 'technically'?" Raven complains.

"So, are we done?" Rita stands from her seat on the bed. "I'm going to go get some rest then."

"Okay." Estelle smiles a little. Rita leaves, and the princess looks back at everyone else. "What... What do you think Rita's going to do?"

"Hmm, what indeed." Yuri muses.

"Does this mean we're on our own until we leave tomorrow?" Judith asks.

"Yeah. We'll all meet down at the harbor then." Karol likes this plan.

"All right." Lloyd shoves off the chair, waves lazily, and wanders out. Estelle, Raven, and Judith follow him, leaving Yuri and Karol. The Brave Vesperia Guildmaster took the middle bed, and Yuri decided to feel out the mood of the group.

* * *

After a chat with Karol on guilds, a nearly one-sided talk with Repede, a talk-in-circles conversation with Judith, a conversation on flighty-ness, and more serious matters, with Estelle, Yuri found the large white and green dog with purple paws.

"So, Noishe was it?" Yuri said, approaching. Large wing like ears twitch, and Yuri finds himself watched by far too intelligent brown eyes.

"_Whine_." The dog sounded affirmative, so Yuri continued.

"You have the title of 'Lloyd's Best Friend', huh?"

"_Whine, whine, yip, whine_." Yuri got the feeling that Noishe was telling him no, and the name of the person who was. It was just all lost in translation.

"Ah, but he's cheered up a lot since you showed up."

"_Whiiiine._"

"Just his nanny, huh?"

"_Whine, yip, yip, bark, whine._" Yuri had the feeling that was laughter, so he gave a short amount of his own amusement as well. Then there was silence.

"... You're not really a dog, are you." Yuri found himself studied by Noishe, before the green and white dog gave a grin, and licked his face. "Oh, yuck!" While Yuri wiped slobber off his face, Noishe had given another whine-laugh, and bounded away. "... Yeah, you're not a simple dog." Yuri smirked at the retreating green-and-white form.

* * *

Somehow, he wasn't surprised to find Lloyd on one of the grassy hills, sprawled so that his head was further downhill than his feet, staring at the sky. His chat with Raven hadn't been all that enlightening either.

"Anything bothering you?" Yuri asked.

"Hmmm.. You're standing in my view." Lloyd points out.

"My apologies." Yuri moves to not stand in the twinblade's view of the sky, then eyed him. "... Was that your Yeager?" Lloyd made a face.

"He looked a lot like the Yeager I knew, but... didn't remember anything." Lloyd shrugged a little, sighing. "So, either Yeager's got a twin with a weird accent, or bad case of amnesia."

"He could have been lying." Yuri points out.

"Maybe the hit to the head might have knocked something familiar out." Lloyd replies. "In any case, he doesn't seem to be the Yeager I knew, so what I know of him probably won't be any help, if, when, we run into him again." Lloyd pushed himself off the grass and grinned. "Either way, he wasn't anyone I was really searching for, so it doesn't mean that much to me."

"Doesn't mean that much, huh?"

"In the large scheme." Lloyd mutters. "I mean, it's nice knowing who's still about from ten years ago, but I'd rather find my dad."

* * *

Morning brought them to the level just before the harbor.

"Oh, Ioder." Estelle blinks at the green coated, blond imperial candidate.

"Oh.." Ioder stops before them. "It's you all. We meet again."

"So what's a successor to the imperial throne doing in a place like this?" Yuri asks, as a blue-and-white robed official catches up with the Knight's Favored Canidate.

"I've been working with the Don to officially seal our treaty of friendship." Ioder explains.

"Is it going well?" Estelle asks.

"Well... I wish I could say it were going better." Ioder admits.

"I can imagine." Raven says. "That Heracles monstrosity kinda made the Union really not like the empire."

"Yes." Ioder agrees. "And now, prominent members of the empire are voicing their doubts regarding the friendship treaty."

"The conditions the Don gave the empire were for a treaty of equality, after all." Raven says, scratching his hand with his stubbled chin.

"And they are certainly not on equal footing with something like that." Judith agrees.

"It's a bit hard to feel equal to someone who shows up on your doorstep with a giant death machine." Lloyd nods, and Noishe whines in agreement.

"Yes..." Ioder sighs. "Had I known about Heracles beforehand I could have stopped them, but.."

"You didn't know about that thing?" Yuri frowns a little. "You're in line to be emperor!"

"I know." Ioder says. "But I have no authority over the Imperial Knights."

'The Imperial Knights act on orders from the Emperor alone. They do not report to anyone else'." Estelle recites.

"Well, then, it's easy. Just become the Emperor." Yuri says, solving the problem.

"..You mean..." Estelle mumbles.

"Becoming the Emperor isn't as simple as that." Ioder says.

"Why not?" Rita asked, tilting her head.

"Something's needed. It's not just a popularity contest." Lloyd shrugs.

"Yes. To ascend to the throne, one must possess the imperial treasure, Dein Nomos." Ioder says, before blinking at Lloyd. "How do you know this?"

"I'm an insomniac, on the best of days." Lloyd shrugs, grinning a little. "I would wander the castle after Alexei put me in rooms there. I heard things. Things I probably shouldn't, and a lot of random gossip."

"Who would be talking about Dein Nomos?" Estelle blinks.

"... uh." Lloyd blinked, and looked like he withdrew in thought. "... Ragou, and someone else. Can't match face to voice, or name to voice at the moment."

"Dein Nomos went missing around the time of the Great War, ten years ago..." Ioder continued. "So, if you had heard anything about it being stolen..."

"Nope. More speculation." Lloyd shrugged, looking uncomfortable this time.

"Hmmm." Raven crossed his arms behind his head. "So that's the real story why we still don't have an emperor..." Yuri frowned a little, muttering something about Ragou and Dein Nomos too low for Karol to hear more than a mumble.

"What was that, Yuri?" Karol blinked, drawing Rita's attention to the ex-knight.

"Forget it." Yuri said. "It's nothing."

"Anyway, is it really okay for an imperial candidate to be wandering the streets like this?" Rita plays with some of her longer hair.

"I was just on my way to Heliord." Ioder explains.

"Ah, that is closer to Dahngrest than this place is." Raven says. "Negotiations would probably go smoother there."

"I believe so, too." Ioder smiles. The nameless councilman who accompanied the blond candidate stepped forward.

"Master Ioder, we should be off." He says. Ioder nods.

"If you will please excuse me..." Ioder nods to the party then passes them. Estelle tilted her head down before the party turned to Lloyd.

"You've stayed in the castle?" Rita asks, frowning a little.

"Yeah, some fifteen or so years ago." Lloyd shrugs, his hands in his pockets, and starting for the harbor. Estelle blinks.

"I was moved to the castle around that time..." Estelle follows, and the rest followed him to the docks. As they reached the second, the one with more ships on it, men ran up the stairs they had just passed down.

"Against that many? You've gone crazy!" One shouts.

"I wouldn't do that even if I had nine lives!" Another shouts.

"What's going on?" Yuri glances over.

"Halt!" A redhead woman in an orange coat shouts after them. "If you won't do the work I've paid you for, then I want my money back!" she turned to her dark green haired companion. "Add the Indigo Beasts to the blacklisted guilds!"

"Yes, Madam President." The redhead walked past her companion toward a boat.

"Isn't that the woman we met at Deidon Hold?" Estelle asks.

"Yeah, that's her all right..." Yuri replies.

"Wh-why do you guys know her?" Karol asks the pink and dark-violet pair.

"We just met her once a while back." Yuri says. "She a friend of yours?"

"I wouldn't say I know her." Karol admits. "She's the president of Fortune's Market, one of the five master guilds."

"In other words, she's one of the top dogs of the Union." Raven clasps his hands behind his head as he explains. Yuri snorts a little.

"Hey, I just got an idea...!" Karol says excitedly.

"What's up, Karol?" Yuri asks.

"Maybe she could get a boat for to take across to Desier." Everyone shrugged at that, and they turned to go meet with the redhaired Fortune's Market President, whom Estelle remembered was named Kaufman. She turned as they approached, and gave a smirk to rival Yuri's.

"Well, if it isn't Mr. Yuri Lowell." Kaufman says. "You've come at just the right time."

"Huh." Yuri says as everyone looks at him. "I guess those wanted posters really do work." He shrugs.

"Well, they **just** enough." Lloyd nods. "Enough for people who want to look for you to find you, and not enough to have you chased out of every town you set foot in."

"Funny how it works that way." Raven agrees.

"... Weirdoes." Rita mutters. "If it works out for us, stop commenting on it."

"Listen, I've got a job that would be just perfect for you." Kaufman says.

"Hard labor, huh?" Yuri asks.

"I like a man who can cut to the chase." Kaufman says, shifting her glasses. "As you may have heard, schools of mermen often attack cargo ships at this time of year."

"Huh?" Karol blinks. "but I thought there was another guild that always served as your escort..."

"It seems the leader of the mercenary guild I hire passed away suddenly, so they aren't available." Kaufman says. "The other guardian guild simply has no backbone. I don't know what to do."

"What was the name of that guardian guild you mentioned?" Karol asks.

"The Blood Alliance." Kaufman says. Everyone blinks.

"Gee, I wonder what could have happened to them." Rita drawls.

"You're all guilty as I am..." Yuri muttered at them, gaining grin from Lloyd and vaguely guilty looks from Estelle and Karol. Noishe gave him a whine, as if to say 'I had nothing to do with that'. Yuri then turned about. "Hate to disappoint you, but we're in the middle of something right now, so... see you around."

"Wait, Yuri!" Karol yelps. "What about the boat?"

"Hm?" Kaufman blinks at them. "Did you say 'boat'?"

"We've made a guild of our own." Yuri says, turning back about.

"We're called Brave Vesperia!" Karol cheers.

"That's a wonderful name." Kaufman smiles. "Well then, shall we talk business?" She watched Karol. "Mutual gain is one of the basics of all business, you know. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

"Sorry, but like I said, we're in the middle of a job. We can't take on anything else right now." Yuri says.

"I could." Lloyd offers, waving his hand a little. "And Noishe can too."

"You're not of the guild?" Kaufman asks, watching the twinblade and then the large green and white 'dog'.

"I thought you said Noishe was a coward." Rita frowns at Lloyd as well, and the brunette grins.

"He'd whine and yip and run away from where ever they showed up." Lloyd explains. "And I'm not a guildsman, just a wandering mercenary currently following them about. Lloyd Aurion."

"**Crazy** mercenary." Karol edits Lloyd's introduction.

"I'll need more than one man and his giant, coward dog." Kaufman says. "You're hired. We can discus pay in a moment. Get on board." While Lloyd grinned at the looks from the rest of the party and waved to Noishe, boarding, the president of Fortune's Market turned back to Yuri.

* * *

How old do you all think Ioder is? oO

I'm not entirely happy with Lloyd and Yuri's conversation, but I don't think much else other than awkward silence would have followed.


	22. Sail

A half hour later found them all standing on the deck of a ship shaped like a dragon. At least, the figurehead was of the beast, and the mast was three smaller ones on each side like wings. Lloyd sat on a crate, and Noishe sat beside him as the twinblade scratched his neck.

"This is the Fiertia." Kaufman explained to Brave Vesperia. "She'll be your ship as soon as you've escorted her to Nordopolica." Kaufman indicated the man standing behind her. "And this man is Tokunaga of Gull's Song, a maritime guild affiliated with Fortune's Market. Tokunaga is an expert in piloting the Fiertia."

"I'm Tokunaga." The man had fluffy brown hair held up with a white bandana, sunglasses, and vest rather than a shirt. His white pants belted with a red sash didn't look so much pirate-like as Kaufman's did. "Very nice to meet you."

"We're not in a hurry, but these are important negotiations, so we really appreciate your help." Kaufman says to the lot of them.

"What is the ship's cargo?" Estelle asks.

"That is confidential information." Kaufman replies without missing a beat.

"It always is..." Lloyd grins a bit.

"It's nothing we should be worried about, is it?" Yuri asks dryly.

"Relax. We've got it covered." Kaufman waves it off. "All right, heading to Nordopolica. Go directly southwest from Torim Harbor and you'll see the Desier continent. Nordopolica is at the eastern edge." And so they set to sailing.

* * *

Raven sat on top of one of the masts' attachment to the main body of the ship. Lloyd sat on the figurehead, Karol and Estelle near the rail, with Rita standing behind the princess, Yuri flanking Tokunaga from the right, with Judith behind him, and Kaufman flanking Tokunaga from the left.

"It'll be nice if we don't run into the mermen, won't it?" Estelle says. Lloyd jerks up from his half-asleep slump.

"That's pretty wishful thinking." Rita snorts.

"You're quite the pessimist for your age, girlie." Raven drawls.

"I'm just a realist." Rita retorts.

"Anyway, thanks for your help." Kaufman says. "It looks like we're going to make it on time."

"Yeah, Leviathan's Claw was going to beat us there if we hadn't found an escort for the ship." Kaufman's guard says.

"Oh, no." Lloyd groans. Everyone blinks at him. "You just had to say that, in combination." Estelle tilted her head to the side while Kaufman simply raised an eyebrow. "You commented on how well things were going, and a wish to not run into trouble. Now trouble's gunna come. A~ny second." Lloyd remained on the figurehead anyway.

"Intuition?" Raven asks.

"No." Lloyd shrugs. "It just always happens that way. All the time." Yuri shifted his sheath, making sure it was ready to be flung, then turned back to the conversation.

"Leviathan's Claw, huh? That's a name I seem to be hearing a lot lately." Yuri says.

"Oh?" Kaufman glanced over at him. "They're a guild that's specializing in sales of Hoplon Blastia."

"Oh, that explains the situation in Heliord..." Rita blinks.

"Lately they've been trying to steal our clients from us. If we weren't able to cross the sea, they would've swiped up another of our major customers." Kaufman says.

"Still, I can't help but wonder where those slimeballs are getting their product from." Kaufman's guard adds.

"Indeed. Hoplon Blastia isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to get one's hands on." Kaufman agrees.

"You don't think..." Rita played a little with her hair, closing her eyes. "the empire is behind this...?" her eyes open. "No, that couldn't be... It's mages that are supervising the Blastia distribution..."

"So much for your warning, Lloyd." Karol calls. "No monsters!" Noishe whines, yips, and runs in a circle, looking vaguely panicked. A second later, the ship shakes.

"Ah, right on time." Kaufman sighs.

"Everyone, be careful!" Tokunaga and the other two guildspeople dart into the cabin. Yuri flicks his sheath away as a handful of shark-headed monsters jump aboard, holding what could easily be described as handheld anchors.

"_Lightning_!" Lloyd cast the low level spell on a merman before jumping it with both blades over his right shoulder. Raven sniped, Repede cut short legs off and Karol screamed and smashed things. In all, the mermen didn't last long. Lloyd kicked a bit of fishman overboard before sitting where he stood and cleaning his mismatched blades.

"You're true to your reputation." Kaufman says, returning. "I was right to bring you along." She smirked at Lloyd, who was doing his strange cleaning exercise with Flamberge close to Vorpal Edge and melting the frozen blood. "And right to hire Mr. Aurion. We'll have to talk about more jobs."

"All right." Lloyd says, inspecting his blade of ice.

"I tell ya, Brave Vesperia doesn't have any shape in working an old man down to the bone!" Raven complains. "Even while I'm looking for Apatheia and doing all sorts of other things..."

"Apatheia?" Yuri asks, watching the Altosk Guildsman. "Isn't that what you were looking for back in Nor Harbor?"

"That's right." Raven straightened.

"That's nothing but a fairy tale." Rita tells him. "I researched it a while back, but eventually I realized that there's simply no way it can theoretically exist."

"I'm well aware that people think it's a fairy tale." Raven retorts.

"Better than people simply saying you're completely off your rocker." Lloyd comments, sheathing his blades.

"Why are you looking for it?" Estelle asks.

"Well..." Raven watches them, then shrugs. "Because the Don told me to."

"Well then, we've got some business to talk about. I'll leave the navigation to you, Tokunaga." Kaufman says. Tokunaga passed the controls to the collective of Brave Vesperia.

* * *

Over the next few, foggy, days of sea-travel, Karol pestered Lloyd loudly about joining Brave Vesperia, at all sorts of unholy hours, unwilling to lose the twinblade to Fortune's Market or affiliated guilds. For the most part, Karol was gaining the amused irritation of Raven, Estelle, and Yuri, Judith's plain amusement, and fists from Rita. Lloyd went from ignoring the guildmaster, to climbing to places where Karol wouldn't follow, to sending Noishe to sit on the boy while he made his escape. On the third day, Lloyd was trapped, and Raven groaned as Karol started up his 'Join Brave Vesperia' speech again.

"Make it sto~p." Raven whines.

"How 'bout this." Lloyd uncovers his eyes. "I contract myself to you. I'll follow your rules, I'll follow you about, I don't take any jobs without you, you slap some sort of auxiliary guildsman or something like that title on me. But I'm not a guildsman." Lloyd gives Karol a bland look. "I don't want to cause you problems when I go home."

"You can still be part of the guild!" Karol insists. "Your home can't be that far away! We could just station you in your town or something."

"Karol..." Lloyd rubbed his temples. "You got part of what you want. It's as much as I'm willing to give. Take it, or leave it." Karol puffed up like he was going to continue insisting, then deflated with a grin.

"Welcome to Brave Vesperia!" Karol cheers.

"Yeah, yeah, now let this old man get some sleep!" Raven whines.

"The fog's gotten awfully thick." Judith comments, looking about at the white expanse about them. Karol blinked, looking about.

"Yeah, it's creeping me out..." Karol shudders.

"Fog like this's usually a sign somethin' bad's about ta happen." Raven mutters.

"Kn-knock it off!" Karol yelps.

"Talk like that long enough and something bad **will** happen." Yuri promises.

"Always." Lloyd mutters, hopping off his seat on the rail.

"Hey! Front!" Rita shouts. "I mean, bow!"

"Hmm..." Judith hums at the sight of a ship ahead. "We're going to hit them." Raven slouches in irritation. The moment of collision knocked them about, cries rising from all but Judith and Lloyd. Picking themselves up, they found the far larger ship next to theirs.

"What is that...?" Kaufman demands, before watching it closer. "That's an old ship. I've never seen that type before..."

"I think it says..." Judith stares at the bow. "The Atherum." The ships rigging was half gone, and its sails had dissolved far further. Then the gangplank dropped from the Atherum to the deck of the Fiertia.

"Ah!" Rita jumped.

"That's weird. There's no sign of people..." Karol notices.

"No people." Lloyd agrees.

"It-it's like... it's calling to us." Estelle mutters.

"N-no way!" Rita turns about to Tokunaga. "Come on! Get the Fiertia going!"

"The Ceres Blastia's not responding!" Tokunaga stands.

"What do you mean?" Rita demands, leaning over the Blastia. "What the hell is wrong with it?"

"You think... this thing's the problem?" Yuri asks, eyeing the ship.

"Oooh, maybe it's a cursed ghost ship." Raven says a little too gleefully.

"Y-you don't really think so, do you?" Estelle asks.

"Why don't we go take a look?" Raven asks. "It'll be fun."

"I love this sort of thing." Judith smiles.

"Forest of the dead, or a ghost ship." Lloyd muses. "Which do ya think will be scarier?"

"What?" Rita whirled about and demanded.

"Well, we don't know what's wrong with the Blastia. We've gotta go take a look." Yuri says.

"Are you planning on just leaving the Fiertia like this?" Kaufman demands.

"All right, why don't four of us go investigate while the rest stay here and keep watch?" Yuri offers.

"That should be fine." Judith smiles.

"Okay." Yuri nodded. "So Repede and I'll go." Repede barked, and then Yuri looked about. "... And who's the third person?"

"I'd love to go, but I'm kinda hired at the moment." Lloyd shrugs, leaning back on the rail. "You can take Noishe, if you want."

"Pass." Yuri says.

"I'm not going." Rita turns about, and crosses her arms. "No way!"

"Yuri, why don't you decide?" Raven offers the idea.

"Gotcha." Yuri looked about as they spread out. Yuri picked Raven and Judith to go on the ship with him.

* * *

Short-ish chapter.

I decided that that was the way that Lloyd would go. And he was pestered into it, so he can complain of being coerced if he wants... Not like he will, but XD


	23. Port

"Are you all okay?" Tokunaga asks the half of the party still on the Fiertia after the shake from the Atherum shook the Fiertia.

"We're fine, but.." Karol glanced worriedly back at the large ship. "I hope Yuri and the others are okay..."

"I'd be surprised if they came out of an impact like that without a few scratches." Kaufman says.

"I think we should go and make sure they're okay." Estelle says. "Is that okay?"

"Now, hold on a second. Who will protect-" Kaufman sighs. "Right, I have Lloyd."

"Everyone, be careful." Lloyd waves at them, sitting on a box. The princess, mage and Guildmaster all headed off the Fiertia.

"It sure is creepy with just us here..." Tokunaga says after a span of silence.

"Eek, don't say things like that!" Kaufman demands. "Talk about something more fun!"

"How about a word game?" Lloyd offers, pulling out a block of wood and a small knife. "Take turns. Say a word, next person has to start their word with the last letter as their first letter. Names work, as long as they aren't too insane, and you can't say something someone's said before."

"Sounds like it could work." Kaufman says. While Lloyd whittled, Tokunaga worked on the Blastia, Kaufman and her shadow leaned on the cabin wall, calling out the words to each other.

"Got it. Here's the flare." Tokunaga lit off his signal.

"Now we just have to wait." Kaufman says, leaning back against the cabin. After a few minutes of silence, with no visible motion from the ghost ship, Tokunaga looked hesitantly between Kaufman and Lloyd.

"Do you think they died?" Tokunaga asks.

"Don't talk like that!" Kaufman snaps.

"Nah, they're good." Lloyd crossed his arms behind his head, nodding slightly.

"How do you know?"

"Because." Right after Lloyd said that there was a flicker of red charged Aer and smoke. "Rita's casting _Fireball_."

"You realize you gave your reason after it had shown up, but you were sure before hand?" Kaufman questions.

"I'm fair sure that a simple haunted ship won't be enough to put them down."

* * *

Blah, blah, blah.

_TIME SKIP._

* * *

"Say, Lloyd, why did you want to call the guild Team Misfit?" Karol asks the twinblade, sitting on the bow while Lloyd sat on the figurehead. "I mean, you explained why with the people involved, but what made you think of that name?"

"I was part of a Team Misfit." Lloyd says.

"Huh? You've been in a guild?" Karol yelps.

"No, no. We were just team misfit. We weren't really a guild, just a group of eight or nine who went about killing... bandit camps." Lloyd explains.

"Why 'misfit'?"

"Because there was me, kinda-leader, village idiot, slightly crazy, my best friend the, uh, light mage, our teacher ... a Kritya school teacher-healer, her brother, a mage younger than Rita, a mercenary, a ninja, a magic-swordsman, who was a noble, a girl smaller than Karol who worked as a lumberjack, and a noble-criminal who was a president of .. a guild." Lloyd explains with a smirk. "And we worked together to blow stuff up."

"Didn't you just say they were bandit camps?" Karol narrowed his eyes.

"They were buildings, so maybe bandit bases, and our mage was _very_ good." Lloyd frowned a little. "Although, it was mostly his sister that blew them up..."

"They sound like they were really good friends." Karol says.

"They were. They are, I hope." Lloyd trailed off.

"Why aren't you traveling with them?"

"I... got separated. They're home." Lloyd shrugs awkwardly. "I just... can't get back yet."

"That's why you didn't want to join a guild, right?" Karol asks. "because you already have something like one, and didn't want to replace them."

"Ah, no." Lloyd says, looking a little startled. "They all hold their own little corners in what's been called my over-large, bleeding heart, but... I know what it's like to lose a teammate, and even if it's not permanent, it's not easy to get over. I don't want to do that to your guild. And I thought I told you that before."

"Who'd you lose?" Karol asks, curious.

"The mercenary." Lloyd grimaces. "He was on a contract, to take our contract. I have scars from when we found out."

"What happened?"

"He fought us, then didn't finish us off. His boss showed up, and tried to make me a permanent fixture of the room we were in. Y'know, slam me hard enough into a wall I stayed put." Lloyd winced in time with Karol. "We got rescued."

"A-ah." Karol blinked, and glowing lights, a glowing ring or three ahead, really, distracted them. The rest headed to the bow.

"So there's Nordopolica." Judith mused.

"Yep, otherwise known as the Coliseum City." Karol says.

"'Once popular among the nobility as a place for pitting criminals against each other in brutal contest, Nordopolica is currently run by the guild Palestralle, and has become a city of entertainment'." Estelle recites.

"Yeah, Palestralle's just as big a guild as the Don's Altosk, and ..." Karol trailed off as a flash of colored light and boom sounded.

"My, how pretty." Judith comments.

"I love fireworks." Lloyd grins, shifting and jumping down from the figurehead.

"So, a party in the streets everyday, huh?" Raven scratches his chin. "This is gonna be great!"

"Since when are you on vacation?" Yuri asks with a slight smirk.

"Oh yeah, right..." Raven face palms. "A minion's work is never done."

"You're the Don's messenger, so don't be rude to Belius!" Karol tells the elder guildsman.

"Young man, you are looking at a veritable paragon of manners and good breeding." Raven clasps his hands behind his head, then laughs. Noishe whines, covering his head with his paws.

"Noishe doesn't believe you." Lloyd tells Raven.

"We've arrived safely, thanks to you all." Kaufman says. "Once I've unloaded my cargo, the Fiertia belongs to you, as promised." She glanced at Lloyd. "I'll pay you then, too." Lloyd waved, and Karol turned about.

"Thanks! We'll take good care of her." Karol promises.

"So are the Sands of Kogorh still a long way from here?" Yuri asks.

"They lie far to the west of Nordopolica." Judith says.

"Aren't there some big mountains on the way there?" Karol asks.

"That'd make going by foot a problem." Yuri notes. "Wonder if we could get there by boat."

"I don't think that's possible." Judith crosses her arms and holds the opposite elbows. "Not many people go to the desert. I doubt there would be a place to moor a boat."

"Are you seriously going through with this?" Rita asks Estelle. "I told you, the desert is really dangerous. I can't just let you go to a place like that all by your ... I-I mean...!" Rita face palmed, and Tokunaga announced he was dropping anchor to the port.

"Good work." Kaufman throws a small purse to Lloyd, who catches it. "Thanks."

"Welcome." Lloyd tucked his pay into a pocket.

"No, no. Thank you!" Karol says. "You're a huge help."

"Right, mutual back-scratching and all that." Yuri agrees.

"Oh, M-Madam P-President." A man in khaki with grayed-purple hair, thick eyebrows, a mustache and glasses approached, stuttering. "It's an honor t-to have you here."

"Excavating more ruins?" Kaufman half turns to the man. "I'm always impressed that the guild boss himself supervises the excavations."

"Th-the excavation of r-ruins is wh-what I l-live for." The man says.

"Who's that?" Rita asks, turning her head a little toward Raven but asking both Karol and the Altosk man.

"That's Regaey, the head of Ruin's Gate." Raven identifies the man for them. Lloyd's staring curiously at the man.

"Ruin's Gate?" Rita repeats. "That sounds familiar..."

"They're the guild that's helping the imperial mages excavate ruins." Raven explains.

"Oh, that's why I've heard of them."

"W-well, I have f-friends who are expecting me, so if you'll excuse m-me..." Regaey stutters, before nodding a little and heading up to the coliseum.

"He seems like a nice person." Estelle says.

"Hey, you were talking earlier about a guild that's selling Hoplon Blastia." Rita says, turning to Kaufman.

"You mean Leviathan's Claw?" Yuri asks.

"Do you think they might be getting their Blastia under the table from those ruin guys?" Rita asks.

"Ruin's Gate is completely innocent." Kaufman says.

"How can you be so sure?" Yuri asks.

"They're upstanding, serious, diligent..." Raven clasps his hands behind his head. "That's what they're known for." Rita tilted her head in thought.

"Well, I'm off." Kaufman says. "Take good care of the Fiertia. Say hi to Tokunaga for me, too."

"Sure." Yuri agrees.

"Good luck, Brave Vesperia!" Kaufman says, before heading off.

"Thanks!" Karol calls after her.

"Mages selling Blastia on the black market?" Rita mutters. "That is so not good."

"Rita." Estelle turns to the mage.

"Huh?" Rita blinks out of her thinking place. "Oh, yeah."

"Well, I got some work to do, myself." Raven says.

"Oh yeah, your letter." Judith blinks. "It's for Belius, right?"

"Yep." Raven pops the word.

"Hey, why don't we all go?" Karol turns about.

"Good idea." Yuri smirks a little. "She probably knows something about Phaeroh." Yuri turned his head a little to indicate Raven. "We'll just tag along with you and say hi to Belius."

"I don't know if that's such a good idea..." Raven deflates. "'Course, I've only heard rumors, but...hmmm..."

"What?" Karol blinks as Raven straightens. "Is something wrong?"

"Huh?" Raven clasped his hands behind his head. "Nah, it's nothing..."

"Where can we find Belius?" Estelle asks.

"The Coliseum, probably, since Belius is the duce of Palestralle." Karol says.

"That'd be up the stairs, obviously." Raven says, indicating they should get off the pier first. They almost made it to the stairs going further up, toward the great stone-work that was the Coliseum, before they noticed they were one two-legger and one four-legger short.

"Oi, Lloyd." Yuri turned about, calling to the twinblade. "Everything working all right in there?" The man was thinking, by the look on his face, and his eyes were nearly closed. "...? Lloyd!" Yuri shouted it this time, and the brunette nearly jerked off the pier in his return to the land of the living.

"Ah. Sorry. Thinking." Noishe gave a whine-yip-yip that sounded like laughter, and Lloyd casually shouldered the large dog. "Very funny."

"What about?" Estelle asks.

"I think I've met Regaey before." Lloyd shrugs. "And I was trying to figure it out, but I couldn't."

"Ah, well, if you figure it out, let us know." Karol grins.

"Right." Lloyd waved a little, his expression slightly vacant as he continued thinking, but followed them up to the coliseum. They entered the outer ring, and found an Inn to their left then a line of shops to their right. Further to the right was another door, and stairs up the coliseum itself. A man stood before the door not to the arena, clad in armored pants, and a pair of belts.

"Lord Belius' private room is ahead." The man says. "I cannot allow you to go any further."

"But we've come to see Belius." Karol says.

"What?" the man blinks. "Who are you?"

"We're a guild – Brave Vesperia!" Karol says.

"...I haven't heard of you." The man states.

"That isn't that surprising." Lloyd wriggled a finger in his ear. "I mean, I'm pretty sure the guild's only been around for a week. Tops."

"Do you have an appointment with the Duce?"

"Huh?" Karol blinks. "An appointment?"

"Unfortunately, my lord only meets with individuals who have appointments."

"How about a messenger from Don Whitehorse?" Raven asks.

"The Don... Oh, my apologies." The man says as he looks at Raven. "My name is Natz. I am the acting representative for the Duce. I will gladly deliver any message you have for the Duce."

"Sorry, but the Don's orders were to give this letter directly to Belius." Raven waved his thick envelope.

"Is that so..." Natz says. "Unfortunately, Belius only receives guests on the night of the new moon." He explains. "If you could perhaps come on the next new moon..."

"The next new moon...?" Rita repeats.

"Why only on the night of a new moon?" Karol asks.

"I guess that's just how she does things." Rita muses. "People can be weird sometimes."

"The moon just turned full, so the new moon is still a while away." Judith says.

"So should we come back?" Raven clasped his hands behind his head.

"We don't really have a choice if she's not here." Karol says.

"Sorry for the trouble." Natz says. "I'll let her know that a messenger from the Don stopped by."

"Great. Thanks."

"So, why don't we see what we can find out about the desert?" Judith asks.

"And about Phaeroh, too." Karol agrees.

"I'd like to get some information about the Aer krene, myself." Rita says.

"We shouldn't have trouble getting information about all of that in a city this big." Estelle smiles.

"You mind if old Raven goes ahead to the inn?" Raven asks. "I should send off a progress report to the Don."

"Sure." Yuri shrugs, and Raven wanders off. Lloyd blinks out of his thinking.

"I have some general-desert knowledge, but nothing specific to this desert." Lloyd shrugs as they glance at him. "So, I can only take guesses as to thinks like, what monsters live there, but I can guess what kinds they'll be."

"What sort of things?" Karol asks.

"Deserts are usually hot enough to bake you in the day time, and cold enough to freeze you at night." Lloyd says. "Best way to avoid losing too much water is to walk at night, where your movements keep your body warm, and try to sleep during the day, under cover." Noishe whines agreement. "I've run into monsters with poison in the desert, but they're usually asleep at night. Most of the monsters in the day time are strong against fire, and light, and the opposite for night."

"That makes a lot of sense." Rita agrees. "Let's see if we can find more detailed information on **this **desert, to add onto what Lloyd knows. Let's go."

Raven had already paid for their rooms, so when they felt they'd done enough gossip-gathering, they turned in.

* * *

*hum*


	24. Arena

After Yuri and Estelle talked of Brave Vesperia and the Child of the Full moon, Yuri noticed Lloyd too had left the inn for 'fresh air'.

"Stargazing?" Yuri asked. "Again?"

"I like the stars." Lloyd retorts. "They've always been there, for me at least."

"Huh." Yuri looked up at them as well. "Never paid too much attention to them, myself."

"Not that surprised." Lloyd says, grinning a bit. "That seems more of Estelle's, Judith's, or even Karol's thing."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You strike me as the kind of guy who only looks up at the sky when you need to make sure that shadow is cast by a cloud, or if it's cast by a monster for you to kick the ass of." Lloyd says. "More grounded."

"... Huh." Yuri blinked once at Lloyd, then back at the stars. "Anything in particular you're looking for?"

"Not really." Lloyd got to his feet. "I used to know the constellation, but... Maybe I got hit on the head once to many. I was looking for a star that shone more purple."

"... A purple star." Yuri repeats. "Really, Lloyd?"

"Hey, that one over there shines a bit red, and that one shines blue, but flickers toward other colors occasionally." Lloyd pointed to a star, then further down and left to the second.

"There a story to this star of yours?" Yuri asks.

"Yes." Lloyd glances back at him. "It's a bit crazy, though."

"Lloyd, everything related to you is going to be crazy." Yuri says, smirking at the immature face Lloyd made back at him.

"Sure, sure." Lloyd waved. "It's actually a comet."

"Huh?"

"The 'purple star'. It's a purple comet." Lloyd said, smirking a little at Yuri. "It's purple because of the thick ...Aer on it. It's called 'Derris Kharlan', and it used to be populated by ..a race rather like the Kritya. There's a tree growing on it somewhere, and that tree produces the Aer. There's a city, and a castle on it too, and the city's populated by winged... Kritya." Yuri raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, it's crazy."

"Told ya." Lloyd waved a bit, looking back at the sky.

"I'm going to bed." Yuri says after a moment more of stargazing. "Don't let searching for your purple planet keep you up all night."

"Whatever, purplehead." Lloyd says. "Goodnight."

* * *

Lloyd was back when they woke in the morning, but it was hard to tell if he had wandered back just then, or had woken before them.

"So, what did we find out?" Rita asks, starting the information share.

"The exit of Nordopolica is past the docks." Lloyd shrugs. It seems to be the only way out of the city."

"There's a town right on the edge of the desert." Estelle says.

"And to get to that town, you either go over the mountains, or through a dangerous cave." Karol says.

"What I know is for when we actually get there." Judith smiles.

"I only got what's already been said." Yuri shrugs, and Repede barks in agreement.

"I took a nap after sendin' my report to the Don." Raven shrugs. "And such a good nap it was."

"Okay, then let's head to see if we can find anything else out on the way to the exit." Rita nods. And so they did.

"You started all of this!" They were on the wooden bridge toward the Port when they heard this cry.

"Huh? What are you talking about!" there were two men with drawn blades, and one nervous looking Regaey.

"B-both of you, s-stop this nonsense!" Regaey stammers. "M-making a scene like this out in f-front of everyone..." Regaey attempts to stop them from attacking each other.

"Mind your own business!" the man with the bandana and kukri says. He turns to use the boomerang shaped blade on Regaey, but Yuri knocks it aside.

"You'd better put that away before you hurt yourself." Yuri tells him.

"Who the hell are you!" The man with the scimitar angled it at Yuri's back, and Judith knocked him back with her spear. "Hey!"

"If I'm wrong for doing this, you'll have my apology later." Judith says with a smile. "But I think it's you two who are in the wrong, here."

"Damn it..." The kukri wielder says, as they've gathered a bit of a crowd. The two straighten and head off in different directions, and then the crowd disperses.

"Are you okay?" Estelle asks Regaey.

"Oh, th-thank you so m-much!" Regaey stammers, then glances over the group, recognizing them. "You were w-with M-madam President K-Kaufman..."

"We're the guild, Brave Vesperia!" Karol announces.

"Come on, you're like a walking billboard!" Rita complains how Karol tells everyone and their mother who they are. Lloyd's staring a bit blankly at Regaey, still trying to figure out why the man felt familiar.

"Let him have his fun." Judith giggles a little.

"You're Regaey of Ruins' Gate, right?" Yuri asks, before smirking a little. "You might want to work out a little before you go trying to stop any more fights."

"Oh yes, I'm sorry." Regaey repeats. "Th-thanks..." the guild master has a look of epiphany. "Oh, umm, th-there's a f-favor I wanted to ask of you..."

"Far be it for us to ignore a request from Ruins' Gate!" Karol exclaims.

"Well, it depends on what it is." Yuri tempers Karol's enthusiasm. "What did you want to ask us?"

"P-perhaps we could discuss this s-somewhere else..." Regaey offers. "Could you come to the coliseum? W-we could talk about it there." The khaki clad man heads up to the building.

"Whatever he has to say, he doesn't want anyone else to overhear..." Raven watches him go. "Sounds pretty suspicious to me."

"Recognize him yet?" Yuri asks Lloyd.

"... Oh. No." Lloyd blinks. He glances to the right. "No, I don't. Sorry."

"If Ruins' Gate recognizes us, it'll help improve our reputation as a guild..." Karol says a bit dreamily.

"Get too greedy with jobs and you'll end up neglecting all of them." Judith says. "Our job for the moment..."

"is to look for Phaeroh and to escort Estelle." Yuri finishes, glancing at Karol.

"Yeah, you're right." Karol says. "I'll try to be more careful."

"But couldn't we at least hear what he has to say first, and then decide whether or not to accept?" Estelle asks.

"Yeah, maybe you're right..." Yuri muses.

"If he asks too much, we'll just say no." Rita nods a little. "We don't have the time to be getting wrapped up in more craziness."

"Let's go and stop by the coliseum, then." Yuri turns back for the stairs up. "We can at least hear him out." And so they climbed the stairs again, then headed past the shops and found Regaey.

"Ah, you have c-come. M-my thanks to you all. Now, please come with me." Regaey leads them into a hall and down some stairs. The grayed-purple haired man was jittery.

"Relax." Yuri tells him. "Nobody's said we've decided to take the job yet. That can wait till you tell us what this is all about."

"A-all right." Regaey managed to calm a little. "I would like you to s-stop the man who is trying to t-take over Palestralle."

"Take over...?" Karol blinks. "This city?"

"Hm, the plot thickens." Judith hums.

"They'd have to take it over, a siege wouldn't work so well." Lloyd says, blinking. "They'd have to barricade the ocean as well as the land, and the people could probably still fish from the main building."

"Why are you so interested in stopping them, though?" Rita asks. "It's not your guild, so why not just let it be?"

"Y-you see, we have been commissioned by Palestralle to investigate the r-ruins at the coliseum." Regaey explains.

"Huh. Yeah, come to think of it, this city's supposed to be super old." Karol blinks. Regaey nods.

"If s-someone else took c-control, it would be discourteous to the Entelexeia."

"Entele...what?" Karol blinks.

"Ah, oh yes. M-my apologies." Regaey blinks. "...D-do you not know of them? I have heard that th-they are the ancient race who built this town, and a-allow the guilds to b-be here."

"An ancient race, huh?" Yuri mutters.

"Like the Kritya?" Karol turns and aims the question at the resident race in question. Judith simply rubs the side of her face a little.

"Okay, so then who's this guy who's tryin' ta rock the boat here?" Raven asks, clasping his hands behind his head.

"H-he's the champion of the coliseum." Regaey says.

"Huh?" Rita frowns, her hands going to her hips. "What are you talking about?"

"H-he is a man who has entered the tournaments to t-take on Palestralle directly." Regaey explains. "His c-consecutive victories have brought him closer to B-Belius. This m-man is terribly dangerous. If he is not s-soon eliminated, I fear that B-Belius may be..."

"So as long as he's winnin', Palestralle couldn't get rid of 'im even if they wanted to." Raven muses, scratching his hand with his chin.

"So, long story short, you want us to enter the tournament and beat him, right?" Yuri checks his assumption.

"Y-yes." Regaey dips his head. "P-please f-forgive my asking."

"Jeez, why didn't you just say so?" Rita crosses her arms. "Are you sure this guy is really trying to take over the coliseum?"

"Of c-c-c-course, and he is being b-b-b-backed by L-Leviathan's Claw!" Regaey's stutter becomes more pronounced, perhaps out of fear. "L-L-L-Levianth's Claw plans to use the coliseum for income to d-dominate the other guilds...!"

"That sounds like a plan someone like Cumore might come up with..." Yuri says.

"Call him 'the ratwiggle'. It makes more sense, and has funnier mental images connected to it." Lloyd says, frowning as he crosses his arms.

"No way..." Karol whispers.

"We already know 'the ratwiggle' and Leviathan's Claw are working together." Yuri decides to humor Lloyd. "Hmm, wonder what'll fall out of this tree if we shake it a little..."

"Whatever happens, we have to stop Leviathan's Claw!" Estelle insists. "Relations between the empire and the guilds will only worsen if we don't."

"What about Phaeroh?" Judith asks. "There's no telling when you'll be able to meet him if we get into this."

"U-um, but..." Estelle looked thoughtful.

"Estelle, what is it that you really want to do?" Judith asks.

"What I really want to do..."

"I-I beg your pardon, is this a d-difficult decision for you all?" Regaey stutters.

"There isn't anything difficult about it." Judith says.

"What do you mean?" Estelle blinks.

"We're going to do it, aren't we?" Judith asks. "We've listened to the story now, at any rate."

"R-right." Karol says. "As a guild, this might not be something we can just ignore..."

"So then, who'll be entering the tournament?" Raven asks.

"Well, we can't ask Estelle, Rita, or Raven to participate." Karol says. "After all, this is a job Brave Vesperia will be doing for Ruins' Gate."

"Okay, so..." Rita looked over those left.

"No hard feelings, but I'd rather not have to go up against Judy." Yuri says.

"Hm?" Judith turned back about. The Krityan had been about to walk away. "And I was just getting ready to enter. Oh well, I suppose I can sit this one out."

"And I'd rather not fight Lloyd, either." Yuri continues.

"Huh?" Lloyd blinks.

"Why not?" Raven asks.

"Because I haven't seen Lloyd use any Strike Artes." Yuri says. "And that worries me."

"...Ya took out Barbos, took on Yeager, a big monster in Caer Bocram and that crazy on the boat, without usin' strike Artes?" Raven asks Lloyd.

"Uh. Yep." Lloyd grinned. "I'm trying to work on my magic."

"Uh...huh..." Raven stared at the twinblade. "Yer kinda scary, ya know that?"

"Exactly." Yuri agrees with the archer.

"Fine, fine, I'll cheer you on instead of fight." Lloyd waves in topic dismissal and agreement.

"The boss here shouldn't have to trouble himself with this." Yuri turns toward Karol. "So, it's up to me then, right?"

"Um, r-right." Karol agrees.

"So... d-do you mean you'll take the j-job?" Regaey asks.

"Sure." Yuri turns back to the nervous man. "Beating the champion will be good for our guilds reputation. It's not a bad deal for us at all."

"Yeah, you're right..." Karol mutters.

"I see, w-well please proceed to the r-registration area wh-when you're ready." Regaey nodded.

"You guys go get good seats. I'll go register." Yuri waved a little, and headed off.

* * *

After a short talk with the ever talkative Duke, Yuri entered the arena.

* * *

"After an Eternity away from you all... Jack.. of blades... is back!" *kicks.* Wrong Arena. Sorry.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen!" the MC calls out. "Welcome to the brutal battles of the Nordopolica Coliseum!" He went over the rules, what the challenger could do, and then announced that the first match was to begin.

"Yuri!" Yuri could hear the princess's call. "Good luuuck!"

"You'll do great, Yuri!" That was Captain Karol.

"Try not to hurt yourself!" And that was the old man.

"Have fun!" That was Lloyd, and followed by amused sounding laughter. Neither Rita or Judith had anything to say to him, but a quick glance to the right confirmed where they were. And the fact that there were quite a bit of people in the stands.

"In today's first fight, a new face in the coliseum!" the man was wearing something bizarre, Yuri notices. "Hailing from the new guild, Brave Vesperia, please welcome Yuuuurri Looowelll!"


	25. Back to Back

The 'former knight', the 'hellacious bandana-clad thief', and the 'masked warrior' all fell rather easily to the Brave Vesperia swordsman, much to his mild amusement, and disappointment. The guy who topped those three could be a little above their level, or far above it. He could barely hear his guild commentating through the cheers of the rest of the crowd.

"Wow, look at Yuri go." Karol cheered.

"Looks like he's got the goods all right." Raven mused.

"He's definitely having fun." Lloyd sounded wistful.

"Well it just keeps getting better! Now it's time for the main event! Allow me to introduce... The current and undefeated champion of the coliseum!" Yuri heard the gate behind him open, and stayed put. Then he heard Repede howl, and startled noises swamped by the roaring cheers. Armored steps came up behind him. "It's the heartthrob with the steely gaze! Flynn Scifo!" Flynn didn't get a drawn out name.

"...Yuri?" The armored stopped. "What are you doing here...?" Yep, that was Flynn.

"Huh, so you're the evil villain who's trying to take over the coliseum." Yuri turned and rested his blade on his shoulder.

"Very funny." Flynn had his own blade out as he approached. "Want to tell me what you're talking about?"

"Heh, so we're being used." Yuri comes to the realization.

"It seems that way." Flynn stopped across the stonework circle from his dark-themed friend.

"Men of the coliseum! Let the flames of your valor burn bright! It's time for the final showdown!" As one, Flynn and Yuri charge each other; the guildsman's strike flashing out faster than the knigh's and forcing him to put his shield in the way.

"Aren't you cutting it a bit close?" Flynn asks.

"Hey, these people didn't pay good money to see a rigged fight." Yuri points out. Their next flurry of blows ends with them back to back.

"You could at least ease up a little." Flynn points out.

"Like you're having any trouble blocking me." Yuri retorts, twisting and starting to use Strike Artes. Flynn caught most on his shield, and found little time to counter strike. "So, care to explain what you're doing here?"

"You know, knightly duties and such." Flynn retorts, keeping back and circling lightly. "Afraid that's all I can say."

"Since when is becoming the champion of the Coliseum a duty?" Yuri asked, smirking. "Especially for a captain of the Knights..." Flynn shook his head.

"I'm not at liberty to say." Flynn struck first this time, and they resumed the almost-stalemate, ending with locked blades.

"I think it's great you're taking your promotion so seriously, but be careful you don't bite off more than you can chew." Yuri drawls.

"You're the one taking this seriously." Flynn retorts. "It's been a while since I've seen you enjoy anything this much. And don't you think it's about time you returned Her Highness?"

"You'll have to take that up with the lady herself." Yuri tells him.

"Her Highness tends not to listen to the things I tell her."

"Yeah, well, Her Highness isn't particularly fond of taking my advice either." Both pressed for a moment then broke the locked blades, dashing back before lunging to strike again. White armor and black coats flickered as they fought at more or less a stalemate, blades flashing.

"Well, shall we put an end to this little show?" Flynn asks.

"How?" Yuri asks. "If we quit now, they'll boo us out of the building." Before Flynn could answer, a familiar, not for wanting it to be familiar, call rang out.

"Yuriiiiiiiii Lowell!" and a familiar, deranged tri-colored man dropped into the arena between them.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding..." Yuri groaned.

"What do we have here! Has someone arrived to steal the spotlight from the stars of the show?"

"Yuri! You've managed to stay alive long enough for me to kill you!" Zagi extends his right hand toward Yuri, his expression in one of his trademark deranged ones. "Now let me show you my thanks!"

"Hate to disappoint you, but I've got other reasons for sticking around." Yuri gave a short laugh.

"You are the only man ever to make me bleed, and I swear that you will die by my hand!" Zagi announces.

"Man, why not do something a little more productive with all that energy?" Yuri sighs. Flynn was looking between the two as if he was trying to figure a story out.

"Watch this!" Zagi raises his left arm, which was silver now with green lights, and fires off a blast of white-red-purple energy.

"Hey, what are you doing?" That shout was Rita's, and a quick glance told him that Judy ran point closer to where he and Zagi stood.

"What could this mean for the tournament?" There was a pause, and a lack of good energy from the announcer. "Oh screw this. I'm outta here!"

"How do you like my arm?" Zagi asks. "You did this to me, and now I'll use it to destroy you!" Zagi began cackling the madman he was, as the others reached Yuri.

"Yuri!" Estelle checks him wounds to heal, while Judith and Lloyd stands so he was flanking them both.

"Come, Yuri!" Zagi beckoned to him. "Let me show you my new toy!" Zagi settled in a stance of sorts, but didn't draw his two blades.

"Now you're starting to get on my nerves." Yuri tells him.

* * *

I'm feeling really lazy today. Zagi fights them. Lloyd doesn't use any Strike Artes. Zagi says random disturbing things, Yuri comments on them, Flynn helps because I don't see him just standing there, they make his arm blow up as a final blow, cause that makes sense. Zagi loses. XD

* * *

Zagi kneels, crying out as his Blastia arm glows.

"It's out of his control!" Rita recognizes the signs. "That's what he gets for using it like that!"

"This damn Blastia's not doing what I want it to!" Ribbons of black flow up from his arm occasionally, and the glow intensifies. Zagi thrusts his arm up and it unleashes a shot. An explosion happens where the slot lands, and then there were...

"M-monsters!" Karol yelps.

"What are they doing here?" Yuri asks, distracted from Zagi.

"They're kept here to be used in the tournaments!" Flynn turns and darts away. "That shock just now must have destroyed the barrier Blastia that was holding them in!"

"Grahh!" Zagi gives a grunt-yell-scream, turning and fleeing as well.

"He's getting away...!" Judith leans like she might race after him, only to stop as a monster knocked Estelle down and to stand before the princess.

"Damn it," Yuri took care of that monster, and Estelle stood quickly. "Guess we'll have to take care of the monsters first."

"Gotcha." Lloyd grinned, before jumping a large mantis, Noishe whining and running circles anxiously.

"Why are you still here?" Yuri asks the green and white dog, launching himself at some of the scaley-wolf like things. The large dog barked and yipped in response, ending with a howl.

"He followed me down, and didn't realize what he was getting into." Lloyd shouts over his shoulder as he takes apart the mantis. "He can't get back up, you see." Noishe barks and grabs the back of Lloyd's coat, dragging him back to the group as the monsters got thicker.

"No, I think it's cause he's your nanny." Yuri says.

"This is becomin' a real pain in the neck." Raven groans, as the monsters kick up a cloud of dust that makes it hard to see how many there were surrounding them.

"Less talking, more fighting." Rita says, starting her _Fireball_ spell. While the mage was glowing red, Estelle started to shine.

"W-what?" Karol turned from fighting to stare. Rita's _Fireball_ became a size more common with Lloyd's overcharged spells.

"Hey... what's going on?" Rita demands.

"Could this box be causing everything...?" Estelle takes out the locked red box. Then it was snatched, by a grayed-purple haired man in khaki.

"Him!" Rita shouts, recognizing Regaey.

"Hear me Knights!" Flynn re-appeared, all the way up in the announcer's box. "Sodia will command this division and eliminate the remaining monsters!"

"Shouldn't evacuating these people come first?" Yuri asks.

"The rest of you will defend the spectators with me!" Flynn continued. "Don't let even one of the beasts escape!"

"Heh, looks like Flynn was thinking ahead." Yuri watches the box a little. "He even sounds like a real captain already." He turned to the rest. "We're getting out of here."

"Judith and your puppy dog already took off." Rita says.

"Noishe went with them." Lloyd shrugs.

"Yeah, I heard." Yuri says.

"A hero's work is never done..." Raven nods a little, while everyone dashes away. "Helloo! Wait up! Hey!" Lloyd and Yuri batted monsters away while they ran back into the main part of the coliseum city. Judith hailed them as they reached the room where the inn was.

"He got out of the city." Judith reports.

"...He's pretty good at running away." Yuri notes.

"Repede is still after him. Noishe followed him as well." Judith says.

"Hopefully he won't lose the trail..." Yuri mutters, before glancing at Lloyd. "How good is Noishe at tracking?"

"..." Lloyd frowned, tilting his head. "Never tried to use him that way. I don't know."

"That's a lot of help." Rita scoffs.

"But what's the deal, anyway?" Karol asks. "Why would Regaey...?"

"Think he set us up somehow?" Raven muses, scratching his chin.

"Looks that way." Yuri says. "He used us to keep Flynn from carrying out his orders." Yuri felt his own chin a bit in thought, then glanced at Lloyd. "Lloyd-"

"No, I don't remember. Sorry." Lloyd shrugs, cutting him off.

"Orders...?" Estelle asks.

"Relax, it doesn't look like he's here to recapture any princesses." Yuri tells her. "He wouldn't go through the trouble of entering the tournament for that." Yuri started walking a little, beginning to pace or not yet to be seen.

"Well, then what could it be?" Estelle asks.

"Good question." Yuri turns about. "Whatever it was, I'm sure it was hurting Regaey's plans."

"But Regaey seemed so polite..." Karol deflated a little.

"Karol, just because he's polite doesn't mean he's nice, or good, or whatever you want to add there." Lloyd waves a hand a little. "If Yuri was polite, would that make you trust him more?"

"... No." Karol almost recoils. Yuri made a face, and everyone spared a little bit of humor.

"He didn't seem too polite when he was making off with that case." Rita points out.

"This might mean Ruins' Gate is nothin' more than a false front..." Raven says thoughtfully.

"Still, what could he want with that case?" Judith asks.

"... What case is this...?" Lloyd scratched his head.

"The one we picked up on the Atherum." Rita explains things quickly for the twinblade.

"Just what was the clear ciel crystal?" Estelle asks.

"About all we know now is that something in that box made my magic go all haywire." Rita played with some of her hair. "I'd never lost control of my bodhi Blastia like that before..."

"And something to do with sky." Lloyd shrugs as they stare at him. "Ciel. It just rings 'sky' or stuff beyond sky, to me."

"Hey, if we've got time ta be standin' around chattin', shouldn't we be chasin' after your doggy friends?" Raven asks before anyone can try to get answers from Lloyd.

"You're right, we should be going." Judith agrees.

* * *

Uuhhhh. Yeah. Ciel is like, french for something like 'heaven' or 'sky'. I think. I'm not taking french, but there's this j-rock band called L'arc en ciel...


	26. Cave

"Repede...!" The dog met them at the exit of Nordopolica, holding a bit of khaki in his mouth and walking smugly. Noishe was sitting next to a man cooking fish, trying to beg scraps from the rather scared man. Lloyd retrieved his dog as Estelle knelt near Repede and passed Judith the scrap of khaki.

"Look is this...?" Judith studies it.

"Repede'll be able to follow his scent with this." Yuri nods, confirming that it was part of Regaey's clothes. Repede barked in agreement.

"We've gotta get that case back!" Rita announces.

"Yeah, there's that too." Yuri says, watching as the mage started off.

"Guilds don't take kindly ta backstabbin' cheats." Raven agrees.

"That's right." Karol nods.

"Let's make sure he's not being blackmailed into doing it, first." Lloyd shrugs as they look at him. "If Ruins' Gate really is innocent, but the guildmaster was forced into doing something bad, well, we could get in trouble for takin' him out." Lloyd explains. "Just talk a little first. All I'm saying."

"He couldn't just cross the mountains to the west without preparing first." Judith says. "We should be able to catch up with him."

"All right, let's get him. And we can have a nice chat." Yuri agrees.

"Do you think the Coliseum will be okay?" Estelle asks.

"Are you worried about it?" Judith asks back.

"Do you want to wait here with Rita, then?" Karol asks.

"What do you mean?" Estelle blinks.

"This is a guild matter, after all." Raven crossed his arms behind his head. "Nothin for you little ladies ta worry yourselves over."

"Sorry, Estelle, but I'm going too." Rita says, standing on the other side of Repede. "I'm curious about that red case." Estelle turned about. "Besides, I won't feel right till I give that idiot a piece of my mind."

"If it makes you feel better, we can delegate Lloyd to keep with the escort while we take care of the wrong against us." Yuri says.

"Huh? Why me-" Lloyd sighs. "Whatever, whatever."

"Then, I..." Estelle looks down.

"Decide for yourself." Yuri insists.

"I... I'll come too." The princess decides. "If he was trying to obstruct the Knights, then this could be connected to the Empire."

"Hmm, maybe." Yuri smirks. "Anyway, the Coliseum will be fine. Flynn's got a handle on things."

"Well then, let's get our things in order and go after that jerk." Rita orders.

"I've got what I could find here for a desert trip." Lloyd shrugs. "Over mountains? Depends on what kind."

"Well, I guess we've got it down, then. Let's go." Yuri starts out, Repede racing ahead of him, tracking Regaey.

* * *

Somehow, they got a lot more running done in a day than they had previously. Yuri noticed neither Karol, Rita, or the old man complained about the amount of rushing, and he already knew Estelle would drop over before she said anything. Lloyd was muttering under his breath, a half-focused look to his face as he emptied a Holy Bottle on Noishe, the dog whining but staying near the group. So, they made good time after Regaey. There was even a path they could follow, but Lloyd thought that cutting corners was a good idea at times, so they did that too. The road ended in a cave.

"No sign of him so far." Rita said, following Repede inside the cave a little, out of the sunlight.

"Do you think he went this way?" Estelle asked, while Lloyd looked about inside, Noishe staying put in the sunshine, outside the cave.

"Maybe he used this ta get through ta the other side of the mountain." Raven guessed.

"But this cave is the Weasand of Cados." Karol says, frowning. "A powerful monster called Pteropus lives here. It's supposed to be really dangerous. Or at least that's what Nan told me." Repede started further in, sniffing the ground.

"Perhaps he went inside without knowing that." Judith offered. Repede barked, almost to a bend ahead. He dashed around it, and there was a slight sound of a scuffle.

"W-w-w-wait..." Regaey stammered. "P-please l-let me go." As they headed into the cave, they saw that Repede had the khaki clad man by the collar.

"Looks like he was hiding out here hoping we'd just pass him by." Yuri comments.

"Well now." Raven claps his hands. "Let's have a nice long chat."

"What were you trying to gain, setting us up like that back at the coliseum?" Yuri demands.

"And give back that case!" Rita adds.

"You leave m-me no choice." Regaey let his shirt rip to let him stand. He raised a hand, and a handful of Red Eyes dropped from the ceiling.

"Leviathan's Claw?" Estelle gasped.

"Down!" Lloyd called to Rita, and the mage dropped as Lloyd jumped over her to bring his blades down on a navy blue clad assassin. With Yuri and Karol on the twinblade's heels, and Repede flanking them already, the guildsmen had no chance.

"Guess this means Ruins' Gate and Leviathan's Claw are connected." Yuri muses as Lloyd kicked a body off the shelf where the walkway was.

"So they pretend to help with the excavations, then swipe materials and sell them later, huh?" Rita muttered, putting it together, furious. "I'll make them pay... I swear..."

"How could a guild as famous and renowned as Ruins' Gate do something like that?" Karol asks.

"Sometimes power corrupts." Lloyd shrugs. "Any kind." Lloyd knocked the last corpse off the edge, and Judith passed him.

"Judith, wait!" Karol calls.

"He'll get away if we don't hurry." Judith points out.

"Remember what I said?" Karol asks. "There's a really nasty monster living in there."

"Hey." Raven calls. "Whaddya say we call it a day? Old Raven can't afford ta get too far from Nordopolica without gettin' this letter to Belius. The Don'll hit me with another one of his thankless jobs otherwise."

"Well, I'm going after him." Rita says. "I can't let somebody like that just do whatever with the Blastia he takes from the ruins! And I'm gonna get that case back, too!" Yuri sighed a little.

"I..I'm going too!" Estelle announces, and Yuri's expression turned to a smirk.

"What are you talking about?" Rita demands. "You're staying put here."

"I'm not." Estelle insisted.

"Hah." Yuri laughs a little, his smirk gaining teeth and width to near grin. "This doesn't sound like something Brave Vesperia can very well pass up."

"..Yeah, it's our job to protect Estelle." Karol agrees.

"Why were we even questioning whether we'd be going or not?" Lloyd asks, scratching his head. "I thought it was a given that we would be."

"If we all go together, we're bound to come up with something." Judith says, and starts further in. Raven stays put, but the rest start walking.

"Sure you'll be all right without the Great Raven?" Raven asks.

"I think so." Yuri lazily waves at Raven. "Good luck delivering the letter." Raven said nothing for a moment as Yuri headed for the bend.

"..Jeez, aren't ya even gonna try ta stop me from leavin'?" Raven demands, then catches up to them.

* * *

The Weasand was filled with Bats, Spiders, and mushrooms, occasional bears and those strange scaley wolf-like monsters. And glowing crystals and occasionally flowing water.

Repede barked, darting ahead. He stopped before a span of water that covered the path, between a pair of glowing plants. Regaey was on the other side. But as the group headed closer to the water, Regaey tripped.

"Aaah...! H-heeelp!" the guildmaster yelped, as the water between Repede and him started to glow red, the green-glowing plants shifting to a matching hue as well. Lloyd stopped completely, his expression a bit lost.

"Aer...?" Estelle blinks.

"This is just like at Keiv Moc!" Rita announces. "Is there an Aer krene here, too?"

"What do we do?" Raven asks.

"Charge right in!" Yuri's sights are set right on his target, which is across the Aer'd water. Estelle grabs onto his arm before he can take more than a step.

"...I don't think so." Judith comments.

"Judith is right!" Estelle says. "Touching Aer that thick is dangerous!"

"I-I, c-can't believe that s-something like that would s-save me..." Regaey can hear them, and was back on his feet. He started for further ahead.

"Wait!" Rita shouts, but really had no need. The red-Aer filled water crossed the path ahead of him as well, and Lloyd gave a weak giggle, obviously trying to muffle it by the hand over his mouth. Karol gave a weak scream, backpedalling.

"It looks like we'll have to keep our distance." Judith muses.

"W-what's this sh-shaking..." Regaey looked about. Yuri looked at the ground as Lloyd flopped over, giggling, then up. A dragon, well, a beaked, scaled creature with wings and a tail, landed before them.

"Is that the monster you were talking about, Karol?" Yuri asks.

"N-no..." Karol peeks from behind his arms. "I've never seen a monster like that before..." The dragon-like creature roared, and red lights streamed to its mouth.

"It ate the Aer..?" Rita stares. Another shake hit as the dragon roared once more, the red Aer vanishing from the water. Karol screamed again.

"I-I can't move..." Estelle whispers.

"Oh no..." Rita groaned. Despite the dragon standing between them and Regaey, well, the creature wasn't overly large due to width, they could see Regaey was back on his feet again.

"This is not... good..." Yuri grits out, as frozen as the rest of them. The dragon watched them a bit, then roared once more, and took off. After it was out of sight, Lloyd's giggles start dying down.

"Hey, I can move..." Raven mutters.

"You're not getting away again!" Judith says, as Regaey was starting to run off. She almost went into the water, but glanced at Rita, and then didn't.

"Rita, be careful!" Estelle calls as the mage walks into the water.

"Don't worry, it isn't harmful at its current density." Rita replies, standing near the edge and staring into the water.

"What the hell just happened?" Raven asks.

"The monster we just saw somehow normalized the Aer krene that was out of control..." Rita says absently. "But that would mean that it can control the Aer... Could it be the same thing that guy did with his sword back in Keiv Moc?"

"Can we pass through it...?" Yuri asks, watching Lloyd and his giggles. "Rita!"

"Oh, uh, r-right." Rita blinked at them. "It should be okay..."

"What's the matter?" Judith asks.

"I have to figure this out..." Rita sighs. "I mean, this is what I'm traveling for... And Lloyd looks like he's going to be sick." Karol hurriedly moves out of the twinblade's way as the man rolls and sticks his head over the water. Yuri waits for Lloyd's heaving to stop, before giving him a hand up.

"Come on, Rita." Yuri says.

"I know, I know." Rita looks at the large crystals in the water. "We have to follow him... but... I just..."

"That Aer Krene isn't exactly goin' anywhere, is it?" Raven asks.

"Of course not, you idiot!" Rita snaps. She blinks. "Oh... I see what you mean..." She turns around. "...Okay, let's go."

"All right!" Yuri gives a smirked grin. "Karol, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah... peachy..." The small guildmaster pants. After a moment, while everyone looks at him, he looks up. "No, really, I'm fine." Karol straightens.

"Lloyd?" Yuri asks the twinblade.

"Headache." Lloyd groans. "Stiff. Been better, been worse."

"Not going to get sick again, right?"

"No." Lloyd says. "No more getting sick today. Unless someone feeds me tomatoes." He was a little unsteady on his feet through, and so he walked carefully in the center of the path.

"That monsters power..." Rita mutters, following at the end. "Was that the Rizomata Formula too?"

* * *

Over some twisted paths above the water, then through another tunnel, and up a path that clung to the side of the cavern.

"There he is!" Regaey was doubled over, and so it was easy for Repede to dart forward and startle the man. There was a mob of bats flying in the way of the exit, filling the room with chittering and flapping.

"B-b-but how did you...?" Regaey froze. Repede did something, and knocked the chest that dropped from Regaey back to the group.

"Good work, Repede." Yuri says, as Repede darts back on the chest's tail. "Looks like our little game of tag is over, Regaey."

"Heh, n-n-now..." Regaey straightened. "I'll have to show you my really real power...!"

"Oh! I got it!" Lloyd suddenly shouts. "He's –" The cavern was flooded with light, and when their eyes cleared, before them stood. "- Yeager!" The man flipped his hair.

"No way...!" Karol wails.

"Huh." Yuri frowned. "So that's what's been going on."

"What does this mean?" Estelle asks. "Was he disguising himself as Regaey...?"

"I don't think we have time to worry about the particulars right now." Judith says.

"Oh me oh my, how terribly frightening." Yeager says, rather cheerfully. "I don't know what I'd do if I were to end up like poor Ragou."

"What do you mean...?" Estelle asks. "What happened to him?"

"They found his body face-down in a riverbed back in Dahngrest." Yeager tells them, sounding a bit like an eager gossip. Yuri shifted his weight, watching Yeager with distaste, and Raven scratched his chin. "I just couldn't bear it if I ended up like that, you know." Karol gaped, Rita looked severely un-impressed, and Lloyd was tilting his head side to side as he thought.

"Ragou is... dead?" Estelle repeats. "But why?" Repede tilted his head like he was looking at Yuri, but the dog was missing an eye on that side.

"Afraid that's not for me to say, nein, my lips are zipped up tight for sure." Yeager waggled an admonishing finger at them, almost purring the last word. Yuri exhaled, glaring at the guildmaster.

"Well, there is a river nearby." Lloyd grins, getting ready to draw his blades by the way his balance shifted. "I could help you with that."

"Lloyd, did you-?" Karol gasps.

"Ah, no, no, I think I will decline." Yeager turned for the exit, or rather the mob of bats.

"Oh... Not that way!" Estelle gasps.

"Yeager!" Gauche and Droite dropped from nowhere, their blades of matching color to their hair in hand.

"Ta-daah, the reinforcements have arrived!" Droite cheers.

"Gauche, Droite – the rest I leave up to you." Yeager says.

"As you wish." Gauche says.

"Aye aye, sir." Droite giggles. The twin-like girls turn to the bats and attack them. Most of their hits were avoided by the winged beasts, but they all headed close to the girls.

"He's getting away!" Karol wails.

"Not on my watch!" Yuri lunged for the bats and twins as well.

"See you in the funny papers, leibchen!" Yeager waved a little at them, heading out of the cave. One of the bats started flying in a tight circle, and the others formed a T-shape about it. A blur came over them, and they turned into a smoky winged beast. It flashed once, and knocked Yeager's bodyguards back.

"That's him!" Karol yells. "It's Pteropus!"

"All right!" Lloyd shouts, grinning as he draws his blades and Yuri's sheath flew off to the side. "This'll be fun!"

"Ah, damn." Raven sighs, lowering a magic lens. "Don't go usin' any wind, water or dark on it, but light's good to go."

"Gotcha." Rita says, the pattern under her feet glowing earthen. Lloyd remained back by Rita, his blades held before him as a white seal slowly formed itself under his feet, Estelle doing the same from the other flank of the twinblade. Raven moved forward, using archery over magic, and Karol, Repede, Judith, and Yuri all jumped the smoky black-purple monster.

"Lloyd, are you sure you should be casting magic after being Aer-sick?" Estelle asks, before chanting, "O power that tries souls, shine..."

"Well..." Lloyd looked at his pattern then the monster. "Casting doesn't take too much balance, or movement." His words took on a chant-feel.

"O sharpened rage, run through that which blocks our future..." Rita chants. "_Stalagmite_!"

"_Photon!_" Estelle casts as well, her orb of light forming above Rita's rocks, pinning the Pteropus there.

"_Shining Spear!_" Lloyd mimes throwing, and a lance of light drops from magical nowhere to stab down into Pteropus. After the hit, the lance flashed, and exploded into a dome of light, which knocked the mob of bats the monster had just turned into about, scattering them.

"Uh..." Karol blinks, mentally failing.

"The yellow horned one is 'Leader Bat!'" Estelle quickly uses magic lens. "The ones with blue are 'magic', the ones with red are 'attack'."

"Wait, the bats can use magic?" Raven blinks, then yelps and moves away from a _Champagne_ spell.

"Definitely seems like it!" Yuri looks about for the Leader Bat. "Old Man, hit the Magic ones, you too Lloyd. Estelle, focus on magic bats and healing. Repede, you, Karol and Judith on the attack bats. Karol, heal if you think someone needs it. Rita, blow 'em away!"

"Right." Raven groans.

"Gotcha." Lloyd turns to cast again.

"Yes!" Estelle brought her shield up and started casting as well.

"Woof!" Repede barked.

"Aye aye!" Karol cried.

"Ok." Judith smiled.

"Like you need to tell me that." Rita scoffed.

* * *

Yeager's accent is awesome? But I'd probably end up butchering it, so... make it in you're head~!


End file.
